Xbox One

I wanted to jot down a couple quick thoughts about the Xbox One reveal and press conference today, because apparently that’s what this blog has descended into. Ha, just kidding. I’ll be melting my brain with Fast & Furious 6 this weekend, unless something unexpected happens.

First, I think I know why it’s called the Xbox One, even though it’s the third generation of Microsoft’s gaming system. It’s not called the Durango (isn’t that an SUV?), the Infinity (that would've been cool) or the 720 (I know that it’s 360 x 2, but that’s just two circles. Wheee). I think it’s called the One because it’s a homonym with Won. “You buying a Playstation or an Xbox?” “Well, the Xbox won, so an Xbox one.”

Now, let’s get into the specs, and find out why I probably won’t buy one (hint: it rhymes with “Shmomputer.”) It has an eight-core CPU (twice as much as my computer), 8 gigs of RAM (as much as my computer, but I have 4 slots with 4 gigs of RAM sticks each. I don’t know why it only registers as 8 gigs. Any technowizards out there that can help? Also, that doesn’t count the 2 gigs of DDR5 I have for my graphics card), and a 500 gB harddrive (waaaay less than my computer). Finally, it’ll have a blu-ray drive. How much did that stick in their craw to have to license Sony technology? Oh yeah, and my computer has one too.

Of course, what Microsoft is trying to do is turn the Xbox into a multimedia machine. Which my computer can do as well. They’ve touted the ability to get TV, which anyone can get on their computer for a $100 video capture card. Hell, I bought an external doohickey that plugs into my USB port (USB 3, just like the Xbox One) and has a cable connection on the other side. It cost $60, and now I get TV. With some software, anyone can have DVR capabilities (I have Windows Media Centre from a previous computer). Also, they bragged about instantly switching between TV, game, and the internet. We’ve had that on computers ever since ALT+TAB came about. Seriously, anyone that’s had a boss is intimately familiar with that.

Mind you, they’re big on voice and action commands too, which is something my computer cannot do (yet). It’s why I have a mouse, which is much more accurate than most gestures. The voice thing is cool though.

While games played less of an emphasis in the announcement, they did state they had 15 games coming within a year, eight of them being original franchises. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Steam. Cheap games, good games, almost any games you want. World of Warcraft? Not on steam, but downloadable. Blizzard has an online store. Gamefly for more games. GOG for old games. Origin for EA games, because they saw Steam and said “We can do that worse.”

So yeah, anything you can do, my computer can do better. Well, I guess they do have Halo going for them.