My unboxing last night was quiet and thankfully uneventful, no damage during transit and no issues with uploading and installing.

On the whole the Xbox One is a bulky machine, bigger, even a little heavier than the original 360. At least I think so. Despite it's basic shape, the X1's seek-edged blackness is very sexy, very mature. Not at all toyish in appearance the way the old white 360 looked. Unlike the whole faceplate meets giant iPod, this machine looks at home with rest of my electronic components.

The Kinect sensor is nicely designed as well, and I'm relieved that it isn't effected in any way by my theater's projector. Kinect clearly distinguishes me from the projector's light source, I only needed to place it below the projector's image cast and that was it. The sensor's cord is just long enough but I'll be purchasing the extension for better wire management. Kinect itself is a pretty nifty device. I've already tried working the console with and without it. Without gesture and vocal commands the X1's dashboard is a bit of a hassle. The controller is certainly capable but anyone will recognize that it's not the best option for navigating a sometimes complicated and very busy dashboard. It looks like Microsoft crammed every conceivable feature they could on it, and they're STILL NOT DONE. lol

For those still lamenting the absence of backward compatibility, the X1 does indeed recognize your 360 right through the dashboard. Tap or vocal prompt that tile and you're in. You have to say "TV" though because the that's the input it's using. A little weird, you'd think saying "360" was a given. I haven't attempted running both X1 and 360 games at the same time and probably won't. I heard about the smaller screen lag, but this isn't a function I'll be taking advantage of. Playing one system at a time is enough.

Kinect works very well..............about 90% of the time. I have a clear speaking voice and I don't step on pronunciation, but even I had problems when it came to party setup and messaging. Nothing really major, mostly com drops and missed vocal cues. Still annoying though that something that's incredibly simple on 360 is a bit of chore. So they still have that kink to work out. Despite that I laughed several times at the thought of other X1 owners all speaking loudly to their tv screens. LOL!

By the time I got around to DVR functions and commands I realized that configuring the X1 the way you want it is about as involving as setting up a new PC, there's still alot left to do. But I can honestly say that Kinect is not just growing on me, it's already spoiling me. For TV functions it really hit the ground running, effortless and easy. This is going to recognized as a major selling point to gamers and non-gamers alike. I know there was tons of resistance before but I really don't see people letting their Kinects sit on the shelf collecting dust. It's too useful, and as Microsoft works the kinks out it will easily become vital to any X1 owner.

When I finally started gaming I was preparing myself for the worst. I have a 120inch screen, if the X1 performed poorly this screen would pick up all artifacts, jaggies, distortions and any frame rate drops and blow them up big time. I am happy to report that BF4 on Xbox One looks and plays phenomenally! It showed smooth frame rates and animations, all the particle effects and accoutrements that came with the PS4 and PC versions beautifully! I'm not even saying that it looks better than those versions, but if I was unaware of BF4 running at only 720p I honestly wouldn't have noticed or even cared. The X1 clearly has a high quality upscaler. I don't know if it was the AO being added later or what. At this point it simply doesn't matter, the X1 can handle itself in the gaming dept and all of these things I was concerned about faded away into gaming bliss. What a waste of time all of this has been. For fuck sake stop driving yourselves crazy over static screenshots and pixel counting and start having fun! It's been like a fuckin election year.

Well time for me to get back to it. Have fun gamers!

A lot of people on GAF are saying the TV stuff isn't as great as they made it appear.

I thought that was the selling point of the system.TBH I ran a 1080p projector for a long time and at those dimensions 720p looks like ass, I think you are being bias here :D

Not at all, as I said before I went into this expecting to see major image degradation. At least that's how many sites were describing it. Their descriptions made the X1's version of BF4 sound abysmal. I was genuinely relived to see it wasn't the horror they described. lol! In an effort to inform us about the X1's version, they OVER ALARMED us, even to the point of making it sound like BF4 on the X1 would be un-enjoyable to play. They took this whole thing over resolutions and tried to stress the shit out of Xbox gamers and turned this into a mega-sized drama. So now you have X1 gamers playing BF4 and it just sounds like everyone was crying over spilled milk. They simply took it too far.

And my experience with projectors has always revealed that the image quality it's putting out usually can be traced directly to the color wheel technology that it's using and it's contrast ratio. Even my old InFocusX10 supported 720p and would always put out fantastic gaming images but by the time I upgraded to units that had DC ratios higher than 100,000:1, I knew I was only seeing half the picture. The newer projectors are noticeably sharper and brighter than their predecessors, it would be very hard to not spot image degradation.

Ryse has the best facial models and animation i've ever seen, just really impressive stuff. can't wait to see what both consoles bring us going forward.

I'm really enjoying my One. Mostly played game is RYSE, enjoy it a lot. This is at least an 80 % game, dunno what those reviewers were smoking ... loving every minute of it. Forza is also very good, but quite hard. I already have sympathies for the people who have to race against my Drivatar *lol*

My Ryse video made with the Xbox One [contains spoilers]
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=FC85D726041F7CDC&id...

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-11-25-xbox-...

Xbone sells double the 360 at launch in the UK (360 sold 70,000)

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=72201...

How they can fuck up the party system? Smh.

Thats your personal skydrive, from you there you can upload to places like youtube ect...

Instead of Zoo Tycoon I have now bought Assassin's Creed 4, runs pretty smooth with the occasional tearing once or twice within ten minutes. But one thing I don't like: if a game runs in 720p on the One, it looks a bit over-sharpened. Can't describe it better ...

the upscaler has a sharpening/contrast filter.

Well Hana2 is a nice girl but I don't like her doing that :)

I have bought 7 games, here are my personal scores

Assassins Creed 4 85 %
Crimson Dragon 62 %
Dead Rising 3 86 %
FIFA 87 %
Forza Motorsport 5 90 %
Killer Instinct 88 %
RYSE 82 %

My Assassins Creed 4 video
https://skydrive.live.com/embed?cid=FC85D726041F7C...

My FIFA 14 video
https://skydrive.live.com/embed?cid=FC85D726041F7C...

Although it looks gorgeous when playing: Forza 5 E3 vs. Final Build Comparison, downgrade anyone?
http://www.gamepur.com/feature/12902-forza-5-e3-bu...

..

lol :)

7 from moi :)

Microsoft admits Xbox One disc drive glitchSource

Good on them taking care of those who got the problem with a free digital download.

Makes sense that you shouldn't have to wait to have your system replaced, I mean if they get the serial number over the phone they can just do a straight courier exchange, something I expected Sony to do.

Assassins Creed 4 Xbox One vs. PC comparison [of course PC looks better, but XO holding up good]
http://www.computerbase.de/news/2013-11/assassins-...

Dat quick fix of Blu-Ray grinding problem - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDoDqTaIwIc&feature...

:D