The XBOX One

Upthread I said recently that Xbox One’s live TV interface and Plex were the only two main apps left that hadn’t patched out Kinect voice commands yet.

Well, the other shoe dropped. Plex got a big update recently. Not only is the whole interface uglier and slightly less friendly on a controller, “Xbox Pause” and “Xbox Play” and “Xbox Select” don’t seem to do anything anymore. So they’ve basically patched out Kinect support on Plex as well.

The only major app left that still lets me use voice commands is Microsoft’s own “OneGuide”, their Live TV app that lets me watch TV from an antenna, and pause live TV for up to 30 minutes. That’s the only reason left to have a Kinect now. I wonder if they’ll patch out support for Kinect in that as well?

Happy 15th birthday to Xbox Live!

Probably the single biggest contributor to my joining the rest of the gaming community online and regularly getting my digital ass kicked!

I don’t have a 15 year old gamer tag since I canceled my original Live subscription when I got tired of playing MechAssault, then just created a new one when I got my 360. But I have been playing since the beginning! Since that’s important to old farts like me.

I think I joined Live in 2003, so not quite 15 years for me. I do remember that my Xbox Live kit came with MechAssault.

I never let my membership lapse, which is kind of amazing in retrospect. I guess if I paid full price, I have paid $700 to Xbox Live. Except, I rarely ever paid full price. I paid $33 for many of the years I think. This last year I paid $39, which was more than I usually pay so it hurt my wallet a little. So I guess I’d estimate I spent a little above $500 so far in 14+ years.

Wow. I remember the "Xbox Live is 5!’ party in the lobby at work. Dang, time flies.

I lost my original tag for similar reasons. It’s really annoying that I can’t get it back.

My gamer tag dates back to the launch of the original Xbox. But it seems like I only have 10 years of continuous Live subscription.

Guess I didn’t really get into Live until the 360 came out and net connections had gotten a bit better where I lived.

That’s a long time to subscribe to one service, but I think it’s totally worth it. And it’s given me so many free games to try recently.

So, the XBox One S is about to go on a pretty big sale for Black Friday. I kinda want a 4K blu-ray player, so it’s on my mind. Is there anything good out for the XBox One that isn’t on PC?

There’s a few things, but I don’t know if they justify buying a system for. I mean, I absolutely love Sunset Overdrive but I’d feel weird recommending someone buy an Xbox just for that. I do really enjoy the backward compatibility function but that’s more useful to someone who has been in the Xbox ecosystem a while and already owns a bunch of stuff, I would think. I love gaming on my Xbox but it’s hard to tell someone else how they should spend their money.

I have a 360 and kept a few games the kids like or I mean to get back to. Basically none of them are backwards compatible. I think it’s not worth it, even if I’m mostly looking for a UHD player.

Or someone who has never owned a 360 and may still have interest in playing some of the titles which are backward compatible.

Maybe, I don’t know. Are people buying a current gen device interested in playing older games with it?

Not necessarily buy, but I am sending my Day 1 Xbox One to my mom (replaced with the X) so that she can play the Fable games on it.

If you’re not bothered by dated graphics or gameplay, and I mostly am not, it’s a great deal. I personally love that I can access a bunch of my old Xbox content (not having to rebuy it!) on my newest console. I also really appreciate the signaling that this is the plan going forward, that maintaining compatibility with older games is part of the plan. But it’s hard for me to put myself in the mindset of a new buyer, and how that motivates their purchase. I guess in terms of stuff like Game Pass, that puts so much of this in front of you at once, it’s probably a good setup, having all those games available day one.

That’s a good point. If I was a new Xbox One owner, that game pass is actually a really nice option to suddenly have a huge library of games at my disposal.

It’s almost like the old PS+, before they changed it so that games were leaving and entering every month. It used to be a smaller game library than the Game Pass, but a game library nonetheless. Thanks to that, I was able to play Uncharted and Wipeout and a few other games on the Vita before I put it away and never touched it again.

Looks like Cheap Assgamer has gotten hold of the online Xbox sales going up next week -

Good stuff in there, Wolfenstein 2 for $30, AC Origins for $41.99.

Wolfenstein 2 deluxe edition with the season pass included for $40? For the digital edition so that I don’t have to swap discs?

SOLD!

Edit: I’m disappointed in the Watch Dogs 2 price. $20, instead of $12 like at Walmart for the physical copy.
Edit 2: Prey for $20. Not bad. Agents of Mayhem $20. Not bad.
Ubisoft games are the same price that they always go to in every sale. Bah humbug. I wanted a steeper discount on STEEP.

@tomchick, was the Gold Edition of Steep the one to get, since it has the Alaskan Expansion?

Edit 3: I hope the PSN sale on their Sony Exclusives also matches the retail sale prices too, like the Bethesda games in this Xbox Live sale.

I kinda want to buy Origins, Dishonored 2 and Wolf 2. I may have a problem.

Oh wait, also kinda want Halo Wars 2! Only $20! Argh!

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Think I mentioned being pretty stoked about this one some time back, but we’ve finally got a date for SOMA’s release on Xbone, December 1.

Anyone have an opinion on Fable Anniversary they’d like to share? This is on sale as part of the Black Friday thing for ten bucks and I’m kind of tempted since I never played it, or the original Xbox version. I did play Fable 2 and 3 and thought they were pretty good. I could go either way here, probably, just wondering if anyone thought this was worth a look.

I’m curious too. Fable 2 is one of my favorite games of all time, but I never could get into Fable 3 despite a few tries. I was wondering if Fable 1 would fall under category 2 or category 3, so to speak.