If you’re a gamer of a certain age, you’ll have discovered this industry during the pitched Mario-vs-Sonic battles of the nineties. What a darn first 💙impression that would have made.
It was a rough time, friends, there’s no denying it. Friendships were won and lost at recess, you were forbidden to join that game of tag, the cool crowd would disown you, all because you supported the wrong side. there was no question as loaded and controversial as "do you prefer Mario or Sonic?"
Don’t even try being one of those rich kids who owned both consoles. The schoolyards of two decades ago did not take kindly to ♑that sort of thing.
It’s curious (and a little embarrassing, honestly) to see just how little has changed in that re🧸gard today. I mean, sure, the battlefields have changed from the schoolyard to the internet forum and comment section, but it’s the same old console war.
You know how it goes. The same old arguments are brought up time and again. Whose system exclusives are better, who’s selling more, who’s got more gigahertz, teraflops, and rhododendrons under the hood. There will always be the rabid fans. There will always be the apologists. As Kanye West w𝓰ill tell you, during one of his seemingly-wise social media rants, there will always be the haters.
Regardless of how much you enjoy such-and-such a console, though, every system has its flaws and odd quirks. From the color of the logo (which was chosen because a designer’s pens were stolen) to th♛e quirks of Kinect and the console’s in-built ‘pizza tracker,’ let’s settle in for 25 Things That Make No Sense About Xbox💙 One.
23 You Can Play PS4 On Xbox One (For Some Reason)
That’s right, friends. We’re kicking this party off the right way, by starting with the fact that you can ཧplay your PlayStation 4 right through your Xbox One.
It’s a never the twain shall meet sort of situation, and it’s made possible through the One’s HDMI pass-through feature. As NBC News reports, “With the two ports on the console, gamers could plug any HDMI-compatible devi🐽ce — be it a cable box, a media streaming device, or even an Xbox 360 — into the Xbox One to get split-screen viewing and other hyper-entertainment perks.”
Yes, this does include the PS4, but funnily enough, Microsoft doesn’t wan༒t you doing that. due to HDMI latency. "Also," they added, "Sony smells and they aren’t our friends."
Except, no, they didn't actually ⛎say that last part at all.
22 Ah, The Good Old Days Of AA Batteries
With the holidays just behind us, I’m in a bit of a nostalgic mood. For Christma✃ses gone by, I’d be given all kinds of fancy ro𒅌bot toys and such. They were real AA battery eaters, let me tell you.
Today, a lot of this sort of gadgetry has switch to USB chargꩵing and similar methods. Not so with the Xbox One, though, which still powers its controllers the old-fashioned way. Depending on your own personal gaming habits, this can be a surprisingly expensive business.
Cheap batteries, after all, tend to last all of about eighteen seconds. As my parents found out to their chagri𝓰n, back inℱ the day.
21 Installing Games Offline Goes Faster (Which Is Silly)
As we’ll see later, the Xbox One has certainly had a thing about k🔴eeping us online at all darn times. That’s not always the way, though, as canny users have found a bit of an exploit that requires us to be offline.
If those sometimes-super-long waits for games to install from the disk are getting you down, there's an easy fix for that.
forcing the console offline beforඣe inserting the disk and starting the install c🤪an make the process a little faster. Dramatically faster, in some cases. It’s a curious thing, but there it is.
20 The Duke Returns
It’s a curious thing, nostalgia, isn’t it𒁃? For even the most dedicated fan of the relics of gaming’s past, there comes a point where you’ve got to wonder whether it’s time to let go.
When Ninte🐻ndo hit us with that huge, hype-tastic Super Smash Bros. Ultimate presentation, they went to great lengths to explain that it would be compatible with GameCube controllers. Some fans flocked to the controller adaptor, while others wondered if that particular controller should have been put out to pasture at this point.
It’s the same thing with the original Xbox’s notoriously huge ‘Duke’ controller, which received a Xbox One remake some t𒁏ime back. Gamers with hands like mutated dinner plates must have been thrilled to see it.
19 What Did Physical Games Ever Do To You?
As console storage spꦬace has improved (and external drives have become more affordable), more of us have found ourselves leaning towards digital gaming. Frequent sales are a huge factor in this, too, as is sheer, simple convenience. A system like Nintendo Switch, with portability on its side, is a pe💝rfect candidate for digital-only gaming.
It’s Xbox One, however, that really wanted to༺ push us away from physical game disks. In another early policy they had to flip-flop on after intense backlash, Xbox One wanted to outright prevent us lending games to friends and family. And eradicate the second-hand market.has the lowdown on how these infamous policies worked, before they were reversed.
18 Could It Be Xbox One X’s Year?
We’re all familiar with the old chestnut that there’s never been a better time to [buy iꦡnto such-and-such a product]. PR teams for all sorts of companies around the world j🐠ust love trotting this one out.
If you were to ask Microsoft, though, they’d tell you that 🎃there really has never been a better time to get on board with Xbox One X. The console has struggled to make a huge imp﷽act so far, and some have dismissed it, but that seems a little premature.
With blockbuster releases like Red Dead Redemption 2 taking full advantage of its capabilities (“The game doesn’t just look a little better on the Xbox One X compared to the competition; the Xbox One X version is a significant upgrade from every other available version if you’re playing on a 4K display,” reports), perhaps it’s coming into its own as thꦆe superior console gaming experience after all?
It makes no𒈔 sense to dismiss it so quickly, especially considering 𓂃the X’s drop to a more reasonable price point.
17 4K? No Way! Yes, Way.
A lot of gam𒁃ers these days are thoroughly committed to keeping their setups and rigs as up-to-date as possible. Gaming is a way of life, after all, and you want to ex꧋perience your games at the highest resolution and frame rate possible. This is why, for so many of us, the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X have been essential upgrades.
The odd thin⭕g, though, is that lots of us don’t appreciate one of the X’s other talents: enhancing older titles from the Xbox back catalog. If Microsoft could expan🌸d this function (it’s only available with a select crop of titles, as I mentioned earlier), it could become a huge selling point.
16 Now You’re Playing With Power (But What Are You Playing?)
Nintendo’s fans often say the company simply focuses on making fun, E for Everybody-type games, while PlayStation and Xbox get bogged down in tech specs and such. We all know what fans can be like, so we’re not going to go too deeply into it, but𒈔 one thing’s for sure: Microsoft certainly want to be on top, performance-wise.
Since the release of 🏅the Xbox One X, they’ve been proudly touting the fact that they have in their corner. It’s a stunning system, for certain, when you’ve got the matching technology to take advantage of it. It’s still a little lacking when it comes to games themselves that do so, however.
15 Dude, Where Are My Exclusives?
So, yes. We’ve already touched on the fact that exclusive games are among the biggest selling points of a console. Just look what happened to Nintendo Switch, when Super Mario Odyssey arrived and things really took off. Look at the impact that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has had.
Much like PS4, Xbox One struggled to bring those big-ticket items to the table to get consumers emptying their wallets. PlayStation really have got things together lately, though, with a stellar line-up including Marvel’s Spider-Man and God of War this year.
Xbox, by contrast, continues to struggle in that regard.ꦡ It’s a shame.
14 Wherefore Art Thou, Rare?
Once again, gamers of a certain age will remember the carnage that ensued when Rare (beloved developer of GoldenEye 007, Perfect Dark, Banjo-Kazooie and the like) were bought out by Microsoft. The company had been a crucial second-party developer for Nintendo, and their loss in 20🌳02 was a huge blow.
The saddest part is, this powerful gaming ally just hasn’t been at its best since. Around 2010, they started work on some fairly shonky Kinect Sports titles, which i🅰s hardly the legacy such an esteemed developer wants to leave 𝔉for themselves.
The biggest thing they’ve done lately is Rare Replay, an Xbox One exclusive compilation of their titles of yore. Then there was Sea of Thieves, which we’ll get to a little later.