When Microsoft grabbed the floor at E3 2016 and proclaimed what previously called ‘Project Scorpio’, fans were just overjoyed. Phil Spencer clarified that the new release will still look like an Xbox One, and you can still run the games that you have with increased performance. It is just a promising hybrid. This wasn’t just a simple generation upgrade but a very long leap, so distant from the expectation that we will only have another ‘slim’ model of Xbox One.
After one year with some interesting announcements about specs, we finally touched and examined the new console. The new name is “Xbox One X,” announced in the earlier E3. It’s slender, sexy, and unbelievably potent. Moreover, we have tried it and savored its performance before its release on 7 November of 2017.
Box full of Magic
It is hard to start with this machine full of interesting stuff. Let’s get the intricate and mostly mind-numbing specifications first. The X highlights an 8-core processor, 12GB of GDDR5 RAM, and a GPU clocked at 6-teraflops (which means more power for the graphics handling bigger resolutions). This adds up to a console more powerful than any other on the market, and the only console capable of true 4K, ultra-high definition gaming. It supports 4K Blu-rays, meaning game developers should be able to pack more information onto a disc, and also means you can watch all the UHD movies you want on your massive TV. According to Dave McCarthy, head of Xbox operations at Microsoft, the design and specs of the console were, in part, thanks to demands and requests from developers. “A lot of [developer] input actually led to the design of the Xbox One X. They were talking to us about stuff they were doing in the PC space with true 4K, and how it was really deepening their storytelling,” he explains. “That led us to a lot of the decisions we made, like how we’re going to put in 40% more processing power than any other console, and how we’re going to push it to 6-teraflops.”
Eyes-on But what does this entire mean for gaming? We spent some time playing a few different titles using the new console at E3, and the results are beyond impressive. First, we watched Gears of War 4 running on the Xbox One X – the game is getting a free update later this year to utilize the power of the new console – and the results were surprisingly good. The campaign has extended draw distances and more detailed assets, but it’s the performance that stands out, with the game running as smoothly as silk.
Several other games had 4K demos on the Xbox One X, one of which was the visually stunning Assassin’s Creed Origins . The power of 4K was clearly on show here – even when you took to the skies with your eagle pal Senu, the golden pyramid tips shone, the water of the Nile glistened, and you could make out every detail of the area below. The game ran smoothly at what certainly appeared to be 60fps, and it was crisper than a bag of Walkers.
We also got to try out Forza Motorsport 7 , which – again – looked outstanding and ran like a very smooth thing. Sorry, we’re running out of similes. The car models are exceptional, and the backdrops of the mountains and skies are as close to real as we’ve seen in any game, ever. What especially impressed us in the Forza demo we played, though, was the audio experience. The Xbox One X supports Dolby Atmos surround sound, and the results will rumble your socks off. The surround effect is excellent, and the roar of the cars vibrates your bones as if you really were sitting in the driver’s seat of a brand new Porsche 911.
McCarthy promises that older Xbox One games would see improvements, too. “The existing lineup from an Xbox One, with a developer not even touching it at all, is going to run better on Xbox One X,” he says. “It’s going to load faster, you should have smoother framerates through dynamic framerate techniques, and you should see the highest version of visual assets in titles that have dynamic resolution – which a lot of them do, actually.
“And even if you don’t have a 4K TV at home yet, we still do things like automatic super-sampling to make sure that on a 1080p TV, the output from a One X looks great.”
Total control
The new Xbox itself may be black, but the good news is that, if you want to add a splash of color to your gaming, you can now do so using the Xbox Design Lab. It’s finally available in the UK, and has been expanded with more color options, which means you’ll be able to create a customized controller, complete with engraving, from £69.99.
The entire better for playing those stunning 4K games, but there was also good news for old-school fans, as Phil Spencer announced that original Xbox titles would soon be available in the backward compatibility program. To make this announcement all the crazier, it was also confirmed that you ‘d be able to connect all three generations of Xbox console together over a LAN connection and play multiplayer games. That’s right, you can (LAN) party like it’s 2003 all over again.
“I think it’s kind of reflected in the name, the release of Xbox One X really does get us back to our roots, as an innovator, as a supporter of developers, as unlocking new experiences that gamers really love,” says McCarthy. “It felt like a great step in our evolution.”
After one year with some interesting announcements about specs, we finally touched and examined the new console. The new name is “Xbox One X,” announced in the earlier E3. It’s slender, sexy, and unbelievably potent. Moreover, we have tried it and savored its performance before its release on 7 November of 2017.
Box full of Magic
It is hard to start with this machine full of interesting stuff. Let’s get the intricate and mostly mind-numbing specifications first. The X highlights an 8-core processor, 12GB of GDDR5 RAM, and a GPU clocked at 6-teraflops (which means more power for the graphics handling bigger resolutions). This adds up to a console more powerful than any other on the market, and the only console capable of true 4K, ultra-high definition gaming. It supports 4K Blu-rays, meaning game developers should be able to pack more information onto a disc, and also means you can watch all the UHD movies you want on your massive TV. According to Dave McCarthy, head of Xbox operations at Microsoft, the design and specs of the console were, in part, thanks to demands and requests from developers. “A lot of [developer] input actually led to the design of the Xbox One X. They were talking to us about stuff they were doing in the PC space with true 4K, and how it was really deepening their storytelling,” he explains. “That led us to a lot of the decisions we made, like how we’re going to put in 40% more processing power than any other console, and how we’re going to push it to 6-teraflops.”
Eyes-on But what does this entire mean for gaming? We spent some time playing a few different titles using the new console at E3, and the results are beyond impressive. First, we watched Gears of War 4 running on the Xbox One X – the game is getting a free update later this year to utilize the power of the new console – and the results were surprisingly good. The campaign has extended draw distances and more detailed assets, but it’s the performance that stands out, with the game running as smoothly as silk.
Several other games had 4K demos on the Xbox One X, one of which was the visually stunning Assassin’s Creed Origins . The power of 4K was clearly on show here – even when you took to the skies with your eagle pal Senu, the golden pyramid tips shone, the water of the Nile glistened, and you could make out every detail of the area below. The game ran smoothly at what certainly appeared to be 60fps, and it was crisper than a bag of Walkers.
We also got to try out Forza Motorsport 7 , which – again – looked outstanding and ran like a very smooth thing. Sorry, we’re running out of similes. The car models are exceptional, and the backdrops of the mountains and skies are as close to real as we’ve seen in any game, ever. What especially impressed us in the Forza demo we played, though, was the audio experience. The Xbox One X supports Dolby Atmos surround sound, and the results will rumble your socks off. The surround effect is excellent, and the roar of the cars vibrates your bones as if you really were sitting in the driver’s seat of a brand new Porsche 911.
McCarthy promises that older Xbox One games would see improvements, too. “The existing lineup from an Xbox One, with a developer not even touching it at all, is going to run better on Xbox One X,” he says. “It’s going to load faster, you should have smoother framerates through dynamic framerate techniques, and you should see the highest version of visual assets in titles that have dynamic resolution – which a lot of them do, actually.
“And even if you don’t have a 4K TV at home yet, we still do things like automatic super-sampling to make sure that on a 1080p TV, the output from a One X looks great.”
Total control
The new Xbox itself may be black, but the good news is that, if you want to add a splash of color to your gaming, you can now do so using the Xbox Design Lab. It’s finally available in the UK, and has been expanded with more color options, which means you’ll be able to create a customized controller, complete with engraving, from £69.99.
The entire better for playing those stunning 4K games, but there was also good news for old-school fans, as Phil Spencer announced that original Xbox titles would soon be available in the backward compatibility program. To make this announcement all the crazier, it was also confirmed that you ‘d be able to connect all three generations of Xbox console together over a LAN connection and play multiplayer games. That’s right, you can (LAN) party like it’s 2003 all over again.
“I think it’s kind of reflected in the name, the release of Xbox One X really does get us back to our roots, as an innovator, as a supporter of developers, as unlocking new experiences that gamers really love,” says McCarthy. “It felt like a great step in our evolution.”
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