Former PS3 Owner Thoughts on Xbox One

As a former PS3 owner, I have found a few areas of disappointment with the Xbox One. Nothing that I would consider a fatal flaw, but there are several items that must be corrected in order for this system to be worthy of my living room over my much beloved
PS3. Full disclosure, I have owned two Xbox 360s, both canned by the infamous red ring of death. After the second 360 died on me, I switched to PS3…and loved it. Everything worked smoothly and in concert; it played Netflix, amazon instant prime and redbox
without having to pay for access to online functionality, the controllers were Bluetooth and have built in rechargeable batteries, and above all, it worked EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Without question. Buying an Xbox One was no easy decision, but it essentially came
down to my (idiot) friends who refused to buy anything other than the Xbox One and the rarity of finding a PS4. And so, with that said, here is how an admitted PS3 fan views this new system. Much of what I will say is probably on a few other threads, but I
am not going to separate each section for those issues, so enjoy as one solid stream of conscious.



PS3 – UI was easy, icons represented specific categories, such as video, games, store, settings, etc. Analogous to a file cabinet with each drawer labeled for a certain item. Xbox One, on the other hand, is like a desk where someone just tossed around a
bunch of their stuff in the hopes that they would remember where they put it later. I am not a huge fan of windows 8 tiles to begin with, but the execution of this near identical system on the One is lacking. How to fix it is unknown to me, but that is what
you folks at Microsoft make the big bucks. I will say that the UI just simply does not feel intuitive. rying to figure out where the system “app” was took me a few moments (sorry, but I don’t think of everything as an “app,” so I did not look in games and
apps,first). Tiles make sense on a touch device, which this is not.



One specific feature of the PS3 that I would like to see on the Xbox One is the ability to force quit a program. If it currently exists, I cannot figure out how to make it work. On the ps3, all one had to do was press the center home button, and select quit.
The overarching UI would force the game or program to close. On the Xbox, I find myself waiting and waiting for a program to work or for the UI to figure out it has frozen. More often than not I am pulling up other apps to try to get the offending program
to close so I can restart, but it should not be that complicated.



Another, more serious issue I have is the Kinect and specifically the camera. I can see why Xbox desperately want us to accept the Kinect; the ability to connect with other gamers, use it as a Skype camera, use it to sign it, use it for voice and gesture
commands, it all sounds so promising. But here is the thing, it is really freaking annoying and I worry about my privacy. It is annoying because my Xbox will not just sign into my account, it has to see me first (which is fails to do sometimes). Both last
gen systems had auto sign in without an issue, why do we need face recognition security now? If I was back in college, this would have been great when there were four dudes living in one place. Everyone could have their own ID and sign in by face. Easy, done,
awesome. But I am 29 and I don’t live in college world anymore, I have my own house and I don’t worry about anyone else using my ID. The point is, the Kinect auto sign in should be a great option for the roommate set, but not the default and certainly not
the slightly better choice compared to straight up manual sign in every time. I would rather have bought this system without the Kinect if this is why it was included. This is also worrying to my privacy as I cannot just disconnect or cover the camera without
limiting sign in and voice command (I do like the voice command, when it works). In today’s world, when revelations of vast government spy programs have come to light, why in the blue blazes would Microsoft think I would want a camera and microphone, connected
to the internet no less, operating in my living room and watching/listening to me 24/7? I do not care that I am not doing anything wrong, it doesn’t matter. If whoever reads this says, “its not a big deal to me,” good for you, I hope the NSA enjoys watching
you pop cheese whizz in your mouth at 3 am, but I do care and I spent $ on this system. Ordinary Americans have been spied on if they mentioned a key word in a text, phone call or email. What would make me think

anything would be different here? If I am playing Battlefield 4 and say something about a bomb, am I going to be routed to some NSA operative who will check on me? Call me paranoid, but I have a lot of issues with just the possibility of this scenario, and
you, reader, should too. A camera cover should be included with the system after they fix what I mentioned above with sign in. Period.



One final gripe, did I really have to buy a battery pack for this controller? Really? What is the year now, 2014? My jaw literally hit the floor when I opened the box and figured out why the controller turned off whenever I unplugged it from the Xbox (not
to mention a battery life monitor, which PS3 has). The American Auto Industry tried going the cheaper route; plastic dashboards, manual windows, doors and seats, cheap upholstery, while the European and Japanese automakers started making well put together
cars with user friendly, high end materials at similar prices. Guess who nearly went out of business (looking at you, GM) and guess who didn’t. The PS3 had rechargeable controllers 6 years ago, how much would Microsoft really lose by adding that in? If the
customer feels like they are being nickelled and dimed to death (can’t

use Netflix without xbox live, really?) they won’t return, especially if the competition is doing it better, cheaper. At least I didn’t have to buy an adaptor for wi-fi…again.

That said, the games look great, and I think once a lot of the bugs get worked out, you might have something. In the meantime, I’ll be missing my PS3.

:)

 

Favorite Console Design

OG Xbox, the first Xbox had the best looks to it. I wish they would of did it for the XBOX ONE. 2nd would be PS3 OG never own one but thought the looks was cool. 3rd would be GameCube. And the rest are on the same level.

 

Refund?

I'll add my voice by saying that Xbox Fitness was what made me decide on the Xbox One over the PS4. I own a PS1, PS2, and PS3 but thought the Xbox One was really going to give me something different and more functional.

I guess not. I just got ripped off since I bought Extreme Combat, Yo30, Athlete 30, and I think another one.

 

Good Lord man... Not another one...

.

There's already a thread on this topic here:
forums.xbox.com/.../1631776.aspx

 

Like I said: Much of what I will say is probably on a few other threads, but I am not going to separate each section for those issues, so enjoy as one solid stream of conscious.

 

To fully quit a game or app click menu/start on it then quit. The battery isn't an issue. I much prefer this rather than having to tether my controller to the console to charge. I bought a Duracell recharger came with 4 batteries. They last quite awhile
and I always have 2 ready.

 

Thanks for the tip on the force quit, I'll have to try it when I get home. I too bought the recharge stand and it came with two batteries, but it's more in principle that I had to buy that seperatly. I bought a charge stand for the PS3 as well, so I didn't
have to tether it, but as you point out, once the battery was dead, it was tether or change controllers. I just think that for the price, the manufacturer should have included the battery, thats all.

 

Would you prefer the PS4s controller approach, when the controller has 7 hour battery life and you can't do a damn thing about it except plug it in with a cable? I take user replecable batteries any day over that. I'll put in some high quality rechargeables
and be a happy man.

.

Im pretty sure you have several cameras connected to internet in your house just about at all times.. Laptops, tablets, phones, etc. If you want to be paranoid, go the whole way or get one of the many privacy covers available.

 

A) I like the idea of the Xbox coming with a removable, rechargeable battery. But to be honest, tethering was a lot better than having to buy a seperate, 3rd party battery and charger.

B) No, I don't have a ton of internet cameras at my house that are on at all times, sorry. I also would not say I'm paranoid, I just value my personal privacy. Paranoid is for tin foil hat people. The problem with the privacy cover is that with it on, you
cannot automatically sign in. It also should come with the console, I should not have to spend more money on what amounts to ten cents of plastic.

 

Also, are you really playing for 7 hours straight?? I never had a problem, I just stuck the PS3 in the charger when I was done and it was fresh and ready to go every time I picked it up.

 

I find it interesting that this compares the PS3 with the Xbox One rather than the PS4 with the Xbox One. A bit of a fresh perspective there...

 

I ended up using my PS3 today, first time in two months. Dead battery so plugged in controller with cable that doesn't reach the sofa. Played Cod, Last of Us. Man what an experience, slow stupid updates taking ages, can't find players for games, there's
a reason I love my Xbox One!!!! So fast and responsive.

 

Those load and install times on X1...real fast. Pffft!

 

[quote user="HandsomeBison"]

One final gripe, did I really have to buy a battery pack for this controller? Really? What is the year now, 2014? My jaw literally hit the floor when I opened the box and figured out why the controller turned off whenever I unplugged it from the Xbox (not
to mention a battery life monitor, which PS3 has). The American Auto Industry tried going the cheaper route; plastic dashboards, manual windows, doors and seats, cheap upholstery, while the European and Japanese automakers started making well put together
cars with user friendly, high end materials at similar prices. Guess who nearly went out of business (looking at you, GM) and guess who didn’t. The PS3 had rechargeable controllers 6 years ago, how much would Microsoft really lose by adding that in? If the
customer feels like they are being nickelled and dimed to death (can’t

use Netflix without xbox live, really?) they won’t return, especially if the competition is doing it better, cheaper. At least I didn’t have to buy an adaptor for wi-fi…again.

That said, the games look great, and I think once a lot of the bugs get worked out, you might have something. In the meantime, I’ll be missing my PS3.

[/quote]

There is a good reason why Microsoft didn't go down the root of having internal rechargeable batteries, and that is the fact that all batteries have a finite life. Look at the mobile phone market, people don't like having internal batteries they cant change.
I myself had a PS3 (sold it recently too fund my Xbox One) at close to the end the battery on the Dual Shock 3 lasted about an hour before it had to be charged again.

-

Also, were you really that surprised that the controller didn't have an internal battery? I mean didn't you look at the free set of batteries that came with your Xbox One and think "wonder what they are for?" and then maybe look in the manual?

 

[quote user="HandsomeBison"]and above all, it worked EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Without question.[/quote]Mine didn't. I had to wait for the DualShock 3 before my PS3 would stop randomly disconnecting my controllers.

"Xbox, go to <insert name of game or app>"

Highlight program, hit menu, choose quit.

Your face is how it identifies you. If
it can't identify you, you can sign in manually.

I see... so you keep
your cellphone in a Faraday cage when not using it to make a call?

You're aware you don't have to use facial recognition for sign in, correct?

There were two AA batteries included with the controller. It works fine with standard rechargeable AA batteries. Why you'd buy a battery pack, I don't know.

if you bought a PS4, you'd be connecting the DS4 to a cable every seven hours. You tell me which is the better option - the one where I can swap out the batteries with a freshly charged set every 15-30 hours, or the one where I have to tether my controller
to the front of my console every seven hours?