So the release has happened and most people got what they ordered. So, how did your first few hours with the world’s most powerful console go?
I was worried for most of the day due to all the amazon issues, however mine arrived at my house about 30 minutes before I returned from work. My very first impression was “what a lovely, heavy, box!”
I slowly unpacked it while packing away my old Xbox One which is finding a good home with my brother. I decided not to use the Scorpio pad and stick with my trusty crimson omen pad. Only a totally unrelated note, if anyone knows a place where I can get the Gears of war elite controller, please let me know. After a while, I was all plugged in and ready to go. I do need to make a slight confession here in that I may have plugged my HDMI cable into the wrong port and was sweating for a little over the lack of picture. I was comforted a little while later when it turned out another member of the team did exactly the same thing.
Anyway, I was finally all ready to go (I had previously copied over the entire contents of my previous system to a USB drive) I switched it on, saw the spiffy new greeting and then was greeted my name. It applied my settings and a quick update and before long I was on the dashboard. Immediately I noticed that there was no difference whatsoever! Then it told me it noticed that my TV was capable of 4K and would I like to switch to it, I did and noticed a difference.
I then spent an hour watching the queue page as I copied over a few games to give a bash. I had previously stated that I was going to start with Titanfall 2, however word has it they buggered up the patch so I am waiting until it’s fixed. I loaded up Halo Wars 2 and did a quick skirmish. Yeah, it looked much better, it ran much better and it loaded, yup, much better! Only thing I did comment on at the time was that it all seemed a little bright and I need to go fiddle with some settings to reduce that.
I then spent 30 minutes on Destiny 2. I was interested in this as it’s not had a patch yet, but again, there were some improvements in loading and the like.
After this I loaded up Gears of war 2. I played a quick mission, honest to go to loaded the level in about 4 seconds. It was insane. I will be going through the full original gear trilogy soon. I also had a quick peek at Gears 3 just to see if the magic continued and it did! Fast loading, clear graphical improvement just marvellous!
Then the main event for the evening. I loaded up gears of war 4. I decided to do the tutorial level as to be honest, it’s my favourite part of the game! I’m obviously shallow as I chose looks over performance. Good god is all I can say! What a stunning game! After this I went to bed a happy camper.
So yeah, all the above said quite frankly, for me at least, it’s done exactly what Microsoft said it was going to do, it’s bloody glorious and I love it! If you are on the fence I spent about 5 hours on it last night and can say you should get one and you will not be disappointed.