Xbox One X preview: is it worth the money?
It's not next generation, which is why the imminent release of the Xbox One X may have slipped under your radar. Still, the Xbox One-Point-Five doesn't sound as catchy as the One X, so you can forgive the slightly deceptive name.
Anyway, what exactly is so special about this not-quite-next-gen console?
I went to a preview in London to find out...
That look
Starting with the superficials, the machine is very sleek. Minimalist, black, and slimmer than ever, the Xbox One X looks like the Bond villain of consoles.
The Xbox One X boasts an abundance of premium upgrades to its processing power. It is 4K native, meaning it's enabled for what is sometimes referred to as "ultra-HD". With 3840 x 2160 pixels, it allows for a ridiculous amount of detail.
Playing the games in 4K was incredible. There's nothing quite like beheading an orc in ultra-HD, watching their black ichor spatter all over the scenery in intricate detail.
Oddly enough though, this isn't the best feature of the One X. More important to your average gamer is probably the humungous 6 teraflop GPU (Graphical Processing Unit). If like myself you thought a teraflop was a rejected idea for a Pokémon, allow me to elucidate.
Simply put, a teraflop is a unit of computer processing speed. Less simply put, a teraflop means a trillion floating-point operations are happening per second. It gives developers and gamers an idea of how powerful a console is. With 6 teraflops the One X is 40% more powerful than any other console on the market, so that's pretty damn powerful.
An extremely powerful graphics processor like the One X means environments load much faster and with way less lag. For big, open-world games this will mean everything will run more smoothly, as new areas will be able to load way quicker than before.
The processor made a noticeable difference when I played Rise of the Tomb Raider. The enhanced detail and slickness really shone in the adventures of Lara Croft, as I ducked and weaved through ancient ruins and falling scorpions. If anything those scorpions were a little too real. So for really big triple-A games the enhanced power of the One X does make a big difference.
The One X could potentially allow for much bigger game worlds as well, but considering that few game studios are likely to restrict their market to just Xbox One X owners, that's more of a nice, bonus possibility than a solid reality.
The catch
To counterbalance all of these dramatic increases in memory and graphical processing, the console comes with a predictable disadvantage: it will go on the market for $499, whereas the previous model -- the Xbox One S -- now costs a mere $279.
But hey, at least it's completely backwards compatible, so you won't have to buy a new controller or hang on to your old consoles. On the other hand you might have to buy a 4k-enabled TV to get the full benefit.
So should you buy it?
The answer is unfortunately pretty pedestrian: it depends on what you like. The Xbox One X is probably not for the casual gamer who already owns a gaming console, purely because it is so expensive for not much of a new experience. It plays like your common-or-garden Xbox One, so if you're going to shell out just as much as you did for an Xbox One at launch, you need to really want the immersion and detail that 4k and 6 teraflops give you.
So it basically boils down to how much you value that. If you want to be on the forefront of gaming as an immersive experience, then the One X will not disappoint. But if you're more of a casual gamer, the difference in quality between the One X and the regular old One probably isn't enough to justify essentially paying for an Xbox all over again.
The Xbox One X will be available for purchase on November 7.
Topics Gaming
