Looks like my cable box

Microsoft announced it’s next console at a press event earlier today.  I’ve been sort of following it through out the day, grabbing little tid bits here and there .  From what I gather, it looks like it will be more than a gaming machine, it will be an all in one media type hub. It’s pretty much made to look to sit right next to your cable box and make it not so stand off-ish.  I am not too crazy on the looks, but at the same time I don’t mind it.  It’s made to be one with your home entertainment center, and it wont stick out like a sore thumb.  Microsoft also announced a new Kinect to go along with the XB1, and you cannot have an XB1 without a Kinect since it sort of needs it.

Don’t like the fact that you are tied to the Kinect, but I guess you can view it as having a Wii Motion Sensor but beefed up.  It’s another thing that will break, and in my mind, can be avoided, but somehow, you need a Kinect for the XB1 to work.

The controller looks about the same as the old XB360’s.  Some changes of course, but overall, like the PS4, it retains that shape we all are used to already.

Hardware specs wise, it seems to be on par with the PS4.  Both are running AMD chips on x86 architecture, both will have 8 GB of RAM (though PS4 will use GDDR5 as opposed to DDR3 on the XB1), DX 11.1 graphics capabilities, 500 GB of storage and a bevy of wireless signals, and USB 3 ports.  It will be able to support 4k also.  No real details on what the hardware can do as of yet.

They did show off some trailers, which look pretty impressive, but for some reason it didn’t have the same ‘oomph’ that the PS4 ones did.  But this was a fairly short event, so I’ll hold my reservations on that for now.

To be honest, I’m not as wowed with this.  It may very well blow my socks off later on, but as of now, I am putting my money on Ps4 first.  The tied to Kinect feature was a bit of a let down for me, but other than that, it looks like it’s going to be a powerhouse of a unit.  It’s up to the developers to really tie all what it can offer together.

I am excited to see what can be done with this and the PS4.  Hardware specs wise, both seem to be going at it neck and neck, and it will be exciting to see what sort of edge each machine can offer to the gamers.  Not all that media stuff, but on the games itself.  I couldn’t care less if it can handle Netflix and what not, but I want to see what it will be able to offer to us, the gamers, on the gaming side of things.  I need to do some more reading on this, and digest all the info that’s been outed.  Update’s to follow.

Related articles

• Tomorrow the next generation of Xbox begins; here is what to expect (wpcentral.com)
• Xbox One vs. Playstation 4: Spec Showdown (digitaltrends.com)
• Xbox Thre… One (danneh150.wordpress.com)
• Xbox One vs Sony PS4 (trustedreviews.com)
• Next Gen Xbox Revealed (sarkasticswamiblog.wordpress.com)