The arrival of this new generation of consoles was a bit painful, let's face it, but it has finally arrived and we are ready to tell you about the beginning of this new journey. To arrive first to open the dances we find Microsoft that does it with two proposals: Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. The two consoles will both arrive on 10 November 2020, the first at a price of 499 euros and the second at 299 euros. The huge price difference aims to broaden the catchment area of the Xbox ecosystem, in order to offer any type of player an ideal gaming platform on which to have fun and entertain.
In this review we will focus only on the Xbox Series X, the flagship console and the most powerful Xbox console that has ever been made by Microsoft.
Xbox Series X comes with a very elegant and well-organized package: inside, in addition to the console, you will find the power cable, the HDMI 2.1 cable and the new pad. The console, with its black parallelepiped shape, is very compact and slender, to be used both vertically and horizontally, perfectly matching any living room or gaming station.
The console setup is identical to what has already been seen with the previous Xbox One, but the novelty from this point of view is that the console can be configured directly from the phone, thanks to the new Xbox app. In fact, the new app has been updated specifically to interact more directly with Series X and S, allowing you to manage some features, including purchases and downloads from the store.
We have tested the console with about twenty titles, recent and older, and we can guarantee that at present the machine does not produce any kind of noise derived from spinning fans or other. The same applies to the temperature, which has always been kept at rather warm levels without ever heating. Clearly these aspects will be taken into consideration in a few years and with some games that will strain the console hardware more, but for now we are more than satisfied.
Xbox Series X boasts a series of features that aim to redefine the gaming experience we are used to starting first from the concept of speed, which seems to be the mantra of this new generation. Thanks to technology Xbox Velocity Architecture (the innovative combination of hardware, a custom 1TB NVME SSD, CPU and embedded software) the console allows a concrete saving of time in loading anything. The start of the console is almost instant and you are catapulted into the dashboard ready to resume the last game left pending.
In this regard, thanks to the Quick Resume, it is now possible to keep in memory from 3 to 12 games (the number varies according to which titles are held), so that you can switch from one game to another in the blink of an eye. . Simply press the Xbox button on the pad and then choose the game to play and you will be immediately in the game the exact moment you left it. From the point of view of Game Pass, if you think about it, it is a fantastic option that allows you to try many titles among all those available within the Microsoft service catalog. Clearly, for obvious reasons, online games such as Sea of Thieves cannot take advantage of this feature.
The dashboard is in line with what has already been seen in the past, clearly optimized and improved to be more responsive to commands, completely eliminating waiting times. Most of the boxes emphasize the latest activities done with the console such as the latest games started, settings or multimedia content, while everything else exposes services such as the Game Pass or the store to buy games. The latter now work in synergy if you want to buy a game from the pass, offering, among other things, game cards that are much more intuitive and full of information. Transitions and download management are now significantly streamlined and quick.
In short, even the user experience inside the dashboard is practically unassailable (net of personal tastes), as well as absolutely customizable if the standard one is not to be liked.
Obviously it does not end here, indeed, we are only at the beginning. Series X allows you to run games at their peak performance, not only in terms of resolution (max 4K) and frame rate (max 60FPS), but also with considerably reduced loading times, thanks to the speed of the console's internal SSD, and the implementation of HDR also for all those games that have never had it. In this way, the backward compatibility proposed by Microsoft is an added value that should not be underestimated for those who decide to switch to Xbox Series X while still having many games to recover in the previous generation.
For Xbox One, One S or One X owners who instead want to wait for better times to make the leap to the new generation, the Smart Delivery service will be for them. By purchasing a title "branded" with the Smart Delivery label, it will then also be available on Series X / S at no additional cost and with a whole series of graphic upgrades.
For our part, seeing Gears 5 or Forza Horizon 4 running at 4K and 60FPS is truly a feast for the eyes: the visual experience offered by the new updates give an impact that we never expected for two titles released almost two years ago. In addition, games like Dirt 5, the special edition of Devil May Cry 5 and the multiplayer mode of the aforementioned Gears 5 allow you to play even at 120 FPS for owners of 120 Hz TVs who exploit the potential of HDMI 2.1.
Okay, we talked about backward compatibility and games optimized for Series X, but how will the next generation games run? At the moment we have got our hands on several titles but none of these have yet been designed to make the most of the potential of the console. We certainly have titles such as Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition, Watch Dogs Legion and Dirt 5 that in addition to resolutions and frame rate they can also offer support for Ray Tracing, which allows you to manage light and its reflections in real time, (if you have never seen a game with Ray Tracing active, know that on a visual level it can make the difference in a clear and impactful way). In addition to these, however, we will have to wait for games like The Medium, arriving in December, to see the potential of Series X in action since it was developed precisely to exploit the characteristics of the machine. Or wait for the specific patches for the new generation of games as for Cyberpunk 2077, scheduled for a generic 2021.
Another fundamental aspect to talk about is obviously the pad, the mother instrument with which we control our console and the games we access. The Xbox Series X pad does not change what has already been done with its predecessors and aims to improve something that was already considered practically perfect.. The Xbox pads, especially starting with the Xbox 360 ones, were a marvel in terms of ergonomics and especially with the introduction of those dorsal triggers we love so much. Just the D-Pad for the directional keys has always been a rather painful speech, only improved with the advent of the Elite versions.
The Series X pad also partially fixes that problem by becoming the definitive Xbox pad, thanks above all to the improved grip derived from the rough surface placed in the handles and triggers (excellent solution for those suffering from excessive sweating of the hands). The analogs, on the other hand, are slimmer and also covered with a rough surface to avoid the risk of them slipping on the finger, thus guaranteeing greater control when moving the camera or while aiming.
Also to be highlighted is the presence of the new share button, placed in the middle of the pad, which allows you to take screenshots through a quick press, while with a longer press to record the last minutes of the game to capture the most interesting moments.
The Xbox Series X experience should definitely be promoted in function of everything that is offered by the Xbox ecosystem, above all of course the Game Pass, which is the beating heart of the new Microsoft generation. Let's be clear, Xbox Series X is an absolutely incredible machine even without the games in the service catalog, but the offer is so greedy and advantageous that it would be a real shame to skip it. Especially now that the Ultimate offer including Play Anywhere and XCloud allows you to play on PC and mobile too. Of course, from the point of view of exclusives, a flagship title that enhances this launch is missing, but this does not mean that games on Xbox are missing, and will not be missing. The postponement of Halo Infinite has certainly been a blow, but Microsoft's studios have become many and they are all talented: we really can't wait to see them work with games that will make the most of the capabilities of Series X.
An exciting generation is ahead.
