The Xbox One: A Kyo Hands On experience

Xbox, On.

/Little Xbox One logo appears on screen.

/Says hi to kyoyagami10

How I learned not to repeat the mistakes of my father.

The Xbox 360 was one of the worst consoles to have ever launched. I say that with a reason. Every 3 out of 4 Xbox 360s was prone to the infamous Red Ring of Death. Perhaps it was the design and the wants to achieve a very gorgeous looking console (the curves on the 360 is indeed something) that gave it way to poor ventilation and a significant failure rate. But the good thing was, it still had people buying it.

And then, enter the Xbox One, where it is basically one big ass rectangular block. Comparisons were made, and it closely resembled a hood. And you know what?

Microsoft doesn’t care. It knew what the Xbox One needed, and felt it was necessary. That kind of decision, takes balls. While you may lament and yawn at the mega size (at the moment), rest assured, that Microsoft doesn’t want you to go through what it did years ago.

Owh you lovely piece of controller you

The controller is an improvement to the Xbox 360s. To the naked eye, there is no improvement. It looked similar, and it also felt like it the 360s. But the main attraction is actually the weight, the battery, and the Impulse triggers. (The D-Pad is a Thumbs Up from me. Finally!)

The weight feels the best compared to the PS4. I would have loved the PS2s weight, but of course that’s not possible.  It feels so comfortable on my hands that I have no qualms of holding it whenever I felt like playing games with it. The battery is wonderful. Apparently, there’s a built in tech that automatically turns the controller into Power Saving mode when you’re not using it. Standy times have lasted until 18 hours (That’s from other test sites and reviews). Of course, I couldn’t really try that for sure, but if it can last that long without us charging it, I am down with that.

The Impluse Triggers are the vibration tech within the LT and RT triggers. Supposingly, in Forza, it was used to provide feedback if your driving is not so well. I wouldn’t say that my driving was well in Forza (I crashed the Toyata86 a few times until my windshield cracked. Major.), but I didn’t feel that it was responding so well. But again, that’s for later.

Owh Hi there Windows 8!

The UI, if you have used any latest Windows OS product, will make you feel absolutely at home. There’s Pins on the left, and the essential Music, TV, Live Steam menus on the right. Installed Apps are also on the left with the Pins. And everything is…functional. I do like the Windows Tile design, but that would be my biased judgment since I have always liked it the first moment I saw it.

And with that out of the way, you have anything to say Kinect?

I am pleased to do that for you Dave.

Star Trek, Stanley Kubrick’s A Space Odyssey, Minority Report. The Kinect will probably be the grandfather to the entire possible future tech. Not that it hasn’t begun or I’m discrediting Siri or Google Now since they started, but I don’t see myself saying Siri, Unlock or Ok Google (I’m still waiting for Google to send me Google Glass. If that ever happens).

But this console really makes me want to say “Xbox, On”.

The Kinect is supposed to be positioned as a camera. If I were to say “Xbox, On”, it detects me and will identify me accordingly. Should I be identified by Kinect, the console will then say Hi, kyoyagami10! And show my avatar as well (which is what I documented earlier). It is pretty neat to have your console greet you, but the magic doesn’t end there.

The actual magic that I feel, is that it understood my Malaysian voice. Some people think that I have a somewhat American accent, but I disagree.  I still sound like a Malay when I talk anyways. But it felt amazing that the Xbox One was capable of understanding my accent. What bothers me is that, would the Xbox One understand a Kelantanese Accent? I know there have been other Malaysian adopters of various race and they seem to be fine. But what if said person had a lisp? How does that work?

If I were to give a score, I’d say 80% of the time it would understand. There was one time when I mentioned “Xbox Bing” but it ended up opening Video instead. If there were a few other people in the room talking to each other, the score drops a little more to 60%. The extra voice in the room does bother the sensor a little more so I felt it was necessary in a way to tell people “Guys, shut up. I’m trying to talk to my TV here.” Yes, you can also picture the blank stares.

There are some integration of the Kinect Recognition to the games. In Ryse: Son of Rome, there was a moment early in the game that I can shout “Fire Volley”. When prompted, you can shout it. But every time I tried to, it didn’t work, and I ended up holding the LT instead.

It also got me thinking. In a game like Ryse, shouting Fire Volley should make you feel like an army general. So, I of course was shouting with Gusto. I can’t be expected to shout in a deadpan voice or romantic smooth operator style. It just won’t work. Just picture Pirates of the Caribbean, when Jack, Barbossa, Will, Elizabeth were all shouting “Fire!”. Everyone (minus Jack with his sly voice) was basically shouting.

It also got me thinking, can the Xbox One detect high pitched voices? I tried it a few times, but it didn’t register either.

The Kinect Voice Recognition may not be entirely perfect, but lets hope there’s an option that allows Microsoft to record accents and improve from there. I would love to one day say:

“Xbox, LETS GET IT ON!”

“Xbox, ON LAH!”

“Xbox, Play Forza 5 can or not?”

 “Xbox, Record I Love You Mr. Arrogant.” (or whatever TV show that you can pronounce in)

Xbox, Play Forza Motorsport 5

And Microsoft, try to send us patches in the future that allows me to say Play Forza 5. As for the game? OWH YOU BEAUTIFUL LOOKING GAME. I don’t have that much love for racing games, but this is just gorgeous. That’s it. Haha.

Xbox, Play Ryse Son of Rome

Why Crytek you made a game that is not of the FPS genre! Gorgeous one too. But yeah, fix that Fire Volley thing please.

Xbox, Play Killer Instinct. NOW. NOW NOW.

NOW THIS I LIKE. 8 fighters, beautiful particle effects, insane combos (that make no sense), and so in depth of a training mode that I am starting to think other fighting games should adapt, this was the best and most fun experience for me. If you need a game for the One, get Killer Instinct. Besides, at least there’s 1 character that is considered free. So you can play the whole game with just that guy too.

Xbox, err…

If you noticed my hands on with the PS4, I made rave remarks for Resogun. For the Xbox One, I only made rave remarks to the Kinect Voice Recognition. Evidently, if you were looking to play something, there is one specific title in each console that stands out over the rest. I’m certain as well that even though the Voice Recognition is a very lovely touch, I doubt I would be using a lot of it. At least not at this moment. However, if you want to experience what the future may feel like, then just say these following words…

“Xbox, ON LAH!”

Please Note: There were a bevy of features that I was unable to test, like how App Snapping works, the Live TV guide, or even a simple Astro connection (if it was possible) because, lets face it, I still don’t own one. I do wait for the day to try all of that out on my own, but that require some extra waiting time. Once I do have those features, I will update when possible.