Xbox One X will have support for 1440p displays

I can’t even imagine how a game like Super Mario Odyssey would look on this console (not to take away from how incredible Odyssey is). What could I possibly compare it to? When it comes to technical specifications it edges out even the PS4 Pro, so it certainly tops the Nintendo Switch as well. The Xbox One Media Remote gives the casual console users in your family a way to watch Netflix, Amazon Video and Hulu Plus without picking up a heavy, complicated controller just to push play.

If you’re looking to upgrade from an original Xbox One, and you have a new TV, the One X might be more compelling. José Barbosa gives the One X a hoon. However, even bearing that in mind, the question remains, is it worth the money for those with an Xbox One and can it entice PlayStation 4 and lapsed Xbox 360 owners back to Microsoft’s platform?

Instead Home is now dominated by what players were doing most recently, with a single tile sat on top of a banner image, with one button press returning you to that game or app.

One of the key problems to have arisen so far is the hard-drive size.

This early on in its lifecycle it’s hard to say which modes will end up being the most common, but right now it seems that developers are taking a liberal interpretation of what “Xbox One X enhanced” actually means. To do that though would require the power of the Gods, Microsoft has done this with the new One X. As I stated plugging in a 2GB HDD is simple enough and I’m not exactly hurting for space, but with tons of 50GB+ downloads to my name it does get a little dicey if I have a lot of shooters installed. After all, 1080p high-def gaming is already pretty damn good. If not, just pick up a One S, maybe even wait for it to go on sale as the holidays roll in.

Of course, a big part of the console’s sleekness comes from just how compact it now is. We had a chance to put a number of X enhanced games through their paces this week, and the results have been pleasing, again as you would expect from a console with so much computational power. The only issue I have with the guts is the 1TB hard drive.

Things were different, however, when I inserted a Resident Evil 7 disc into the unit’s drive. That being said, the controller that is included is by no means a junker. With the common household running an Ultra High Definition television it made sense that the next logical step would be 4K gaming. You better believe it is! When a standalone player costs around £200, that can be a deciding factor for those looking for the very best quality for watching films, whether they can stream 4K or not. The Xbox One X sorts your games into designated categories; Xbox One / Xbox One X Enhanced / Xbox and Xbox 360 and as soon as a game in your library receives an Xbox One X update, it shifts into the Xbox One X enhanced section. Owners of the launch Xbox One units will likely be the most impressed group of potential customers for this unit, as it’s a big leap from their somewhat underpowered internals (that was still created to support Kinect). With huge titles released this month like Assassin’s Creed Origins and Middle Earth: Shadow of War increasing your Gamerscore by 400 points is also doable.

Gears of War 4 is a shining example of this. With incredible textures and smooth 60 fps gameplay, Gears of War 4 nearly felt like a new experience. It looks incredibly sharp. The performance in loading times is very noticeable. Granted, it isn’t as lightning fast as one would hope. The most recent dashboard has recently gone live ahead of the X’s release and is by far the most improved update of the UI.

A game’s console is nothing without games and a 4K console is irrelevant without 4K games to play on it.

Gears 4 lets you harness the power of Xbox One X by improving visuals (4K and improved textures) or by improving performance (60 frames per second in campaign/Horde and some minor graphical improvements). That is incredibly frustrating!

Thankfully, Xbox has come up with a solution that seems to work (at least momentarily).

One final thing I should mention before I get into the price is how quiet the console is. The Xbox One X, like its predecessors, is very much a traditional, rooted home console. Even when I pop a disk in the tray it barely makes a peep. The games come extremely cheep when they go on sale. Not to mention, you can pick up an Xbox One S or a PS4 Pro for nearly half the price. How many people realistically own a 4K TV at the moment? It’s a superior package and one that should usher in a new era of 4K gaming. Xbox One X could eventually support variable framerate on FreeSync monitors, which would really underscore the Xbox One X over the PS4 Pro.