Ok, I was determined to keep my opinion to myself until E3 and give the Xbox One (wow that's a awful name... someone in the Microsoft office needs a slap upside the head) a chance. But the more I hear and read, the more I want to slap someone for their stupidity. Let me tell you the things I have read and heard so far.

1) Always online. It's been reported that the console is NOT always online, thankfully! BUT what Microsoft have stated is that the console needs to be connected to the internet once every 24hours at least on your own console. If you don't connect it, you won't be able to play your game at all. It'll just be a black box. That plays films and TV.

2) TV. The XboxOne has the ability to play TV and with the Kinect that is now a must-have for the Xbox One, you can switch channels with your voice or a hand gesture. And with a voice command you can switch between TV to your Game. To be honest, as much time and effect they put into showing this feature at their conference... I simply don't care. Everyone I have spoken to don't care. We watch TV just fine already and we simply don't find it that much of a hassle using the TV remote. Not to mention it's been reported that this feature won't be available to the whole world straight away at launch anyway, so all that time they showed it off, is partly wasted.

That and if this thing about there being "TV Achievements" for watching certain shows on TV is true... No. Just no.

3) Pre-owened or trading games. This is the big one, the issue that has most gamers screaming to the heavens in rage. At first it seemed as though Microsoft was going to block used games. Everyone went mad. Then it seemed they were going to put in a fee when putting the second hand game (which you'd have already paid a sum of money to the store for) into the console. People still went mad. So they're saying that they're going to allow trade-ins, so long as it's with "participating retailers". You can bet the participating retailers will have to pay Microsoft a fee or something so the prices on second hand games will go up in their stores, making it less worth while buying them second hand. And if you want to let a friend borrow a game, they have to a) be on your friends list for longer than 30 days and b) you can only lend that game out ONCE. This still has gamers going nuts, mainly because we all feel the same about this:

When we buy a game, it's ours. We bought it fair and square. If we want to lend it to a few friends so they can decide for themselves if they like it before buying it, that's our choice. If the game sucks and we want to trade it in to buy better games, we should be able to. Though apparently that's not allowed anymore.

My personal argument about this is that when I bought Mass Effect. I bought it for £7 at a simple trade in store and thought I'd give it a go. If it wasn't good, it didn't matter, because I spend under a Tenner on it. When I played it, I loved it! And because of that I bought Mass Effect 2 brand new and then pre-ordered Mass Effect 3 when I heard it was coming out!! See, second hand gaming actually HELPED in the selling of later games! This whole restricting of second hand gaming or affecting it like they are, could damage that!

There are others things that bother me about this console, but those are the main ones. Over all... this isn't a gaming console anymore. They have spent so much time and money on TV, movies, skype, "being connected", trying to prevent/alter second hand gaming and everything that the simple idea of putting a game into a console and playing it has gone. Their argument is that, no, it's not a console anymore, it's a "all in one entertainment system" now. But here's the thing, by doing that you've managed to piss off and alienate your previous and main consumers; the gamers! Now you're relying on mid-age parents who don't really know what they're buying for their kids at Christmas and the kids that scream that they want one purely because it's "the new xbox". To sum up, I am not buying this. Hell, when I went into a game store to buy something and they asked if I wanted to put down a deposit for the new Xbox One I said "I wouldn't have one even if you paid me". Do you know what the guy behind the counter said?

"Thank god you said that. It sounds awful doesn't it?"

When the people who are selling your product think it sucks, you're in trouble.

--

As always, this is my opinion and personal rant about something that has bothered me for a little while now. While there are a few facts in this entry, I encourage those who are interested to do the research themselves before forming their own opinion. If you have a different opinion then that's completely fine, it doesn't make me or you right or wrong.

Neko x