As an Xbox gamer for 12 years, it should come as no surprise that I've been looking forward to the Xbox One launch. And thanks to a wonderfully late UPS delivery, I really did wait a lot longer than I deemed necessary. But I'm finally up and running.
These first impressions will, as a result, be quite brief.
It's big. The box, the console, everything about the Xbox One shouts "big." It's much bigger than the PS4, and it comes with far more stuff in the box.
What you get. The Day One version of the box includes the console, the Kinect, the power supply (with brick), a wireless controller, an HDMI cable, and a headset with microphone. You also get an Xbox sticker (like Apple provides a sticker in their product boxes), a Day One achievement card you can scan, an Xbox Live promo card and a Quick Setup Guide.
Initial Setup. As promised, there is a Day One software update you need to install, but it downloaded in just 2-3 minutes and I went from the box to navigating the UI in 5-10 minutes tops. It steps you through Kinect and Microsoft account configuration and of course understands and handles two-step authentication. Excellent.
Apps. Oddly, most apps on the Start screen are not in fact installed. Apps like Xbox Music, Xbox Video, Skype and SkyDrive all need to be downloaded and installed before you can use them.
Store. As with the PS4, things are pretty barren at the moment. There are only a handful of games available, and just four that are AAA Xbox One exclusives. I'll be downloading games for a while, I think.
Controller. The new Xbox One controller is, as hoped, excellent. This is going to make a lot of current Xbox users very happy.
OK, it's going to be a long night. I'll post more about Xbox One this weekend. For now, here are a ton of unboxing photos.
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