I’ve been living with the Xbox Series X for a few weeks now, and let me bottom-line it for you before getting into details: everything about this console so far screams how serious Microsoft is about not repeating the mistakes of the Xbox One generation. It is definitively more powerful than its primary competitor on paper, it’s not force-bundled with an accessory the market is going to reject (and thus it’s priced competitively), and in practice its design is compact and quiet and it really does beat down game loading times with its SSD drive. To top it off, Microsoft isn’t hyping up any TV- or multimedia-enhancing features either. This is a games machine, full stop. My biggest complaint about it so far is that I haven’t seen anything that’s really put all 12 teraflops to the test just yet. More specifically, I've played a total of four optimized-for-Series-X games thus far, two old and two new: upgrades to Gears 5 and Gears Tactics, the latter of which is new to console players, as well as new releases Dirt 5 and Yakuza: Like a Dragon. That’s in addition to the handful of backward-compatible Xbox One and Xbox 360 games I threw at the machine during my first days with it. But for context, none of these are Xbox Series-only releases; all can be played on the Xbox One. That’s a running theme with the entire Xbox Series launch lineup, but I’ll get more into that in the proper Xbox Series X review in a few weeks. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=xbox-series-s-and-series-x-comparison-photos&captions=true"] Dirt and Yakuza I covered separately, but in summary, Yakuza runs at a clean 4K, but it won’t wow your friends. Dirt, too, isn’t quite the showstopper you hope for out of a racing game launching with a new console. It hits 4K/60fps, but Forza accomplishes the same feat on the Xbox One X. Its next-gen trick is a 120hz option, which, while noticeable, isn’t as compelling of an upgrade as I’d hoped for. As for the Gears duo, Tactics makes a nice transition over from PC, looking and running well at 4K/60fps with speedy loading times into missions. It’s the closest thing you’ll get to a new first-party exclusive at launch in Halo Infinite’s absence. Gears 5, on the other hand, has been continually updated since its release, and on Series X, it continues to shine. Versus multiplayer offers 120hz, and it feels more impactful here than in Dirt, presumably because you have more agency over the camera. To my eye, though, the difference between 60 and 120 isn’t as obvious as the difference between 30 and 60. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/10/12/yakuza-like-a-dragon-xbox-series-x-hands-on-preview"] Meanwhile, the Xbox One X interface is nearly identical to what’s on Xbox One, albeit a bit quicker, snappier, and more animated. If you don’t like the Xbox One’s UI, this update is unlikely to win you over...until you try Quick Resume, which is literally a game-changer – a fast game-changer. Quickly hopping back and forth between several games, right where you left off, is absolutely fantastic, and a feature you’re never going to want to be without again. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=You%20quickly%20take%20the%20SSD%20for%20granted%20because%20it%E2%80%99s%20baked%20into%20everything."] The same can be said of the Series X’s NVME SSD hard drive. It’s the biggest quality-of-life upgrade the Series X offers. It made an immediate and delightful first impression in my original preview of the console, and with more time, the best thing I can say about it is that you quickly take it for granted because it’s baked into everything. Don’t get the wrong idea – it doesn’t completely eliminate loading times – but they now seem to never get long enough as to be annoying anymore. And if you need more than the 820gb of usable hard drive space that’s left after OS and system files, the $220 Seagate 1TB expansion card looks exactly like memory card used to, but doubles your storage capacity while also giving all of the speed and performance benefits of the Series X’s fantastic internal SSD. It’s pricey, and you do have other options – notably, using a USB 3.1 external drive as a pack mule for games you’re not actively playing. It’s a cost-vs.-convenience tradeoff. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/10/12/dirt-5-xbox-series-x-hands-on-preview"] The new Xbox Series X controller is a bit of a catch-22: it’s not a big change over last generation, but that’s because Microsoft has more or less already perfected their gamepad. I honestly don’t notice the slight ergonomic changes the Xbox team made, while nearly everything else is identical to its Xbox One counterpart. They’re a generation late with a dedicated Share button, but it’s here now, and the D-pad – long the Achilles heel of Microsoft’s controllers – is a hybrid of the standard Xbox One gamepad’s D-pad and the premium disc found on the Elite controller. It will be a net gain for owners of the former, while a step down for those who use the latter. And build quality seems fine, though mine has a spot on the right handle where the plastic gives and squeaks a bit. Just a one-off, most likely, but I'll mention it anyway. Battery life seems every bit as good – make that fantastic – as the Xbox One gamepad with a pair of AA batteries. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=The%20controller%20isn't%20a%20big%20change%20over%20last%20generation%2C%20but%20that%E2%80%99s%20because%20Microsoft%20has%20more%20or%20less%20already%20perfected%20their%20gamepad."] Finally, let’s talk about heat. I don’t have a laser thermometer to get actual numbers, but the Xbox Series X is definitely warmer than the Xbox One X under GPU load. I wouldn’t personally say it has a heat problem, though. To be fair, we won’t know for sure until these consoles start logging thousands of hours in thousands of real people’s homes, but so far I’m not worried. Does it exhaust warm air out of the top? Yes – it’s designed to. Cool air gets pulled in through the bottom, routed up through the chassis, and the warm air is released through the large vents on the top of the Series X. I pressed my hand into the top of the console and held it there after a long gaming session with Gears 5 and then Gears Tactics. It was warm, yes, and again, warmer than the Xbox One X, but it was hardly enough to make me want to pull my hand away out of discomfort. At idle, in fact, the air coming out of the Series X is barely lukewarm. It’s also whisper-quiet all the time. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=confirmed-xbox-series-x-games&captions=true"] In my opinion, Microsoft’s hardware team has earned the benefit of the doubt here. Ever since the Xbox 360’s Red Ring of Death scandal, the company has substantially and continuously improved. The bulky Xbox One was arguably over-engineered by design, with its large top cooling fan making sure thermals wouldn’t be a problem. And since then, the Xbox One S and One X took those thermal lessons and applied them to much smaller form factors, with no overheating complaints to speak of. In all, this console speaks to Microsoft’s focus on building a serious games machine. The Xbox One X also gave off the same vibe, but from a generational perspective, it’s a focus I haven’t seen from Microsoft since the Xbox 360. Now the focus must shift to getting back to something else Microsoft did well in the 360 days: building great exclusive games. The good news there, though, is that once the company does that, it’s got a great console to run them on. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan, catch him on Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.
source https://www.ign.com/articles/xbox-series-x-the-final-preview
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