October 27, 2014
Feedback submitted!Unable to submit feedback! I was so very pumped for this gaming machine based on the marketing and hype, and unfortunately a year later that zeal is gone. Don't get me wrong, it's a great gaming machine, but I was expecting it to be so much more. In retrospect i wish I would have gone with the pure gaming features of the PS4.Voice control is finally starting to "get better" but isn't perfect as I still find myself shouting commands at the Xbox repeatedly, but it eventually does get them. I wish Microsoft would have included Bluetooth for the controllers and headphones because wi-fi and wires gets old fast. Stereo headphones for the system are nice, but it's still annoying that I can't use the built in microphone for voice commands and have to revert to shouting at the Kinect. (which makes my wife angry at 3am when she's sleeping, this sorta defeats the purpose of the headphone mic in my opinion.) Also, the stereo adapter is "really" annoying, they should have just included a mini jack instead of having the "snap in" adapter.Speaking of snapping, this feature is totally useless. Not only is it unbearably slow, it's easy to accidentally trigger, often bringing the system to a crawl, and demands focus bringing your control away from what you were doing. Even more frustrating is that it's impossible to close without navigating to your home view then selecting the pane, and closing it from that menu. The menu is not available when it's in use. Worse yet, all content is viewed in full browser mode, making IE content unusable. Why not show a mobile version of the site by default?I'm often amazed at how well Bing search works, but only for movie rentals and game purchases. Seems totally useless to me when I'd like to trigger a search about something i'm currently watching or get helpful hints on a game i'm playing. As well as bing works, it seems like such a shame that I can't use it to speak naturally to navigate rather than having to resort to "Xbox select" to get around. They need to get a clue from Google Go on this one.The Kinect camera is actually useful, and ads a fun element to games that support it (For example Alien Isolation) except for one fatal flaw. Bring back the old Kinect hand cursor! (specifically the hover to select function). It's damn near impossible to select items you want with the "push" gesture. Hovering was so much more intuitive and accurate on the Xbox 360. Also, getting everyone that sits down in front of the system is a bit jarring and annoying. Ok, I get it, my wife sat down next to me. Shut the hell up.Then theres SmartGlass. This actually works quite well. I almost exclusively use my iPhone as a remote control and for inputing text into the system. I also find it easier to use the friend features this way as the on system controls are quite clunky. In game third party extensions are a nice touch as well, and enjoyed it in games like Rising Dead where you could take calls on the in game cell phone on your actual phone. The only flaw I've observed with the Smart Glass is volume control is a bit out of reach and slow. would be nice to have it be integrated into the virtual gamepad somehow without having to specifically open and close it. (as it can sometimes be a little slow.)And then ... Disks. Just let me play my damn games without having to put in the disk. I don't care if I have to verify I have it every once and a while, like say every 5-10 plays, but having to get off my couch to play another game and wait for all the loading gets annoying REALLY fast. Sometimes I want to just play a few rounds of Battlefield, switch over to Forza for a a couple of laps, play an hour or Rayman Legends, then kill some aliens in Isolation without having to get up 5 times.I don't have TV service, but use Hulu and Amazon Prime Video quite a bit. It works well. The apps themselves can be a little buggy at times, and some consistency between them would be nice. Access to more content would be even better, as I find myself switching over to my Apple TV when I've run out of things to watch on the Xbox.In summary, I really wanted the Xbox One to be my media powerhouse for TV, games and internet, but it didn't deliver. It's still fun for a gaming machine, and useful as a TV from time to time, but Microsoft oversold the system and its features and ultimately feel that for the money I payed I should have stuck with the PS4.