Taking the plunge-Buying an Xbox One

[cybercylon]

We all have different words for that pile of half finished or unplayed games. I give it a shame because why did I just buy another one when I have ones I haven't played yet? That said... no walk of atonement for me!

[leods]

I have no shame. I buy my backlog when these games are costing 2 dollars, 5 dollars etc.. A lot of them were from bundles, costing one dollar each. So I'm fine.

[atarifanboi]

I'm assuming you have Xbox Live as well.. so make sure you get your "free games with Gold" every month or so.

Had some decent games this way, but there is some dross as well. Last one was Sunset Overdrive which I know is old, but for free its a good game!

[Major Havoc 2049]

Congrats on getting an XB1. The system UI keeps getting better and better with each update and with more features.

 

Elite Dangerous is great on the XB1 and is well supported and constantly being updated by Frontier. It also has a healthy community. The game requires some dedication to get into, but it's worth it.

 

Halo: The Master Chief Collection is a great value.

 

I still play Destiny on an almost daily basis and I'm up 700+ hours. I love the game and would be more than willing to help you get up to speed in time for the Rise of Iron expansion.

 

I own Diablo III, Elite and Destiny, so if you want to game my GT is MajorHavoc 2049.

[Unbeliever]

Alas, no Gold account, as I couldn't afford it for the initial set up. I kick myself for that, but I needed to get the console and some games first, right? Thanks for the congrats on the system, Major. I've been looking at Elite: Dangerous, and I'm thinking it would be a good game for me, having played the original Elite games and loving them. I love space combat/exploration, so this would be right up my alley.

 

Halo: The Master Chief Collection would be a "must buy" as well, wouldn't it? I played all the previous ones, and this compilation would be good to add to my library early on. Destiny is another, but again, no Gold account, so we couldn't multi-play. Pardon me for saying so (despite the "free games"), I'm not keen on paying to go multi player. I would like to add you as a friend, if that's okay, Major.

 

I have Diablo III and LOVE it. It was a #1 choice when I first got the system (top pick, along with Fallout 4), and also picked up Lords of the Fallen. Trying to balance out armor, since it makes you move like a tank the heavier it is, so I keep getting wiped out. lol My tag, by the way, is Trekkie66.

[Flojomojo]

Get a Gold account as soon as you can. They go on sale a lot for $40/year. I kept mine going from the xb360 and grabbed all the free Xbone games until I had a console to play them on.

 

You can get a one year card for $40 right now.

https://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/12-Month-Xbox-Live-Gold-Membership/productID.335448600

 

You will get The Crew and XCom: Enemy Unknown for free if you buy in right now, plus all the other stuff that will come in the following 11.5 months.

https://majornelson.com/2016/05/24/xbox-live-games-with-gold-for-june-2016/

[NE146]

Don't forget Super Meat Boy and Goat Simulator. Both are playable on the Xbone and free right now as well

Edited June 16, 2016 by NE146

[Flojomojo]

I think Meat Boy stopped being available on the 15th. :-(

The nice thing about the xb360 games is that you can keep and play them even if you let your XBL subscription lapse, they're yours forever.

[NE146]

Woops yeah guess it is! http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/games-with-gold

 

Well I posted it yesterday.. so hopefully he was on top of it. Get them while you can because if you snooze you lose

Edited June 16, 2016 by NE146

[Unbeliever]

Well, this is a *bad* time for extra expenses...and I have no money for another two weeks. But thanks for pointing this stuff out for me, in any event! Play money...money I can spend on my "habit", that is.

Edited June 16, 2016 by DS Dude

[PlaysWithWolves]

$33 for XBL Gold is back at Newegg again.

 

And here just two weeks ago I spent $40 on a code plus some soccer game I'll never play because it was the best deal I'd seen in months. Ha ha.

[Austin]

Halo: The Master Chief Collection would be a "must buy" as well, wouldn't it? I played all the previous ones, and this compilation would be good to add to my library early on.

 

I definitely recommend Halo: MCC. At the very least, you are getting polished versions of the existing first four games (sans Halo Reach), all running at 60fps. It's really worth it for that alone, not even taking the multiplayer aspect into consideration. I think it's a $30 or $40 game now new, so you can nab a used copy even cheaper--totally worth it!

 

As far as the Gold account, it's unfortunately required to use some of the other media functions, like YouTube, Netflix, etc (I believe, anyway). As you know it's required for multiplayer as well. Outside of that it's not a necessity you need to buy right away, and when the time comes, you can always get the subscription for $40 or less if you look online.

[PlaysWithWolves]

Halo: MCC is on sale for $9.90 (digital download).

[Austin]

Halo: MCC is on sale for $9.90 (digital download).

 

Nice!!

[atarifanboi]

Even if you can't afford a gold account now, it's definitely worth having in the future, and it is only an annual subscription, so for me in the UK it costs just £3.33 a month, and with the free games and discounts, I think it's well worth it, and I have had a Gold account since day one with my original chunky black XBox

 

I expect the cost in dollars will be similar, and it sounds like you can get good discount deals, I've seen offers over here fo as little as £30.99, so £2.58 a month, which I've easily redeemed in free games.

[Unbeliever]

It's certainly something I want (a Gold account) in the near future. Of course for July I want Elite: Dangerous, so there goes my money for that month! If I buy the standard edition, at $40 (if it's that price by then) I could also get a Gold account. We'll see where we are in another week. So far I'm playing Fallout 4 exclusively, followed closely by Diablo III. So much so I keep losing track of time. I haven't been this hooked on video games in a long while.

[DracIsBack]

I got it for Christmas from my Stepdad who was feeling very generous this year. In that respect, I can't complain.

 

Honestly, though, I find it very disappointing. The UI is really cumbersome to me. Feels like every damn game wants you to sign in (itself a pain in the arse on a console) with a different account. Every game I've purchased has required a giant update before being able to play at first. Very few 360 games play on it.

 

We use it as a media box more than a console. It has a tv antenna for us cord cutters, and that experience is good. It has an external hard drive plugged into it with my movies.

 

But as a console? Honestly, the Wii U gets more play in this house

[S1500]

I will admit, I bought the discounted 1 year Gold membership. Nice to have that without having to give MS my credit card #.

 

Sadly, I tried streaming to my laptop(?) and it didn't work. Tried to watch Netflix whilst trying to download my free games, and that did not go over well.

[PlaysWithWolves]

This thread needs an umbrella.

The dude's loving his new purchase. That's great in my book.

 

 

 

Sadly, I tried streaming to my laptop(?) and it didn't work. Tried to watch Netflix whilst trying to download my free games, and that did not go over well.

 

I initially had a lot of trouble with Game Stream on mine, so please allow me to share my finding (some will be obvious, I'm sure). I really like it since it frees up the TV for the wife.

 

Important:

• Need Win10
• Must have an XB controller connected to the PC. I connect my wired 360 controller, but use my wireless XB1 to actually play. Both do work for XB1 gameplay, FWiW.
• Headset connected to the PC; not the controller.

 

Things to try:

• The Xbox (beta) app. Can be installed alongside the normal app, but it has more features and some bug fixes.
• Check your modem to make sure it's IPv6 and not the older IPv4. I have FiOS and buying a used-but-newer model improved many of my connection issues. Bigger NAT, too.

 

The only remaining problem I have now is that sometimes I lose my mic. I can still hear VOIP in games; just not talk. It's unrelated to the app's mute button, found in the upper-right corner. I've also noticed that downloading while game streaming is extremely slow, so that may also be an issue.

Edited June 20, 2016 by PlaysWithWolves

[Unbeliever]

I got it for Christmas from my Stepdad who was feeling very generous this year. In that respect, I can't complain.

 

Honestly, though, I find it very disappointing. The UI is really cumbersome to me. Feels like every damn game wants you to sign in (itself a pain in the arse on a console) with a different account. Every game I've purchased has required a giant update before being able to play at first. Very few 360 games play on it.

 

We use it as a media box more than a console. It has a tv antenna for us cord cutters, and that experience is good. It has an external hard drive plugged into it with my movies.

 

But as a console? Honestly, the Wii U gets more play in this house

I have to admit, the UI is slightly cumbersome, but now that I'm used to it, I can maneuver around it with ease. It did take a day or two to get used to, however. My other gripe is the downloading of each and every single game (including Xbox 360 titles) to the hard drive. It's far from a deal breaker, but it means an additional purchase down the road so that I don't complain later about deleting games to make room for new ones.Overall, the Xbox One is my primary console and gets much attention every night when there's time to play. And in the mornings, too.

[Austin]

Yeah, the UI has been a disappointment for me. The latest that you see now was supposed to be a "new and improved" dashboard, but honestly I got around faster with the old one. There's supposedly another update coming this Summer that addresses issues with the current dashboard. One good thing about the Xbone is that MS is constantly trying to improve it. It's a constantly evolving thing, so chances are things will improve.

[Flojomojo]

Just plug in an external hard drive, it works transparently and well.

[PhoenixMoonPatrol]

Just becareful when buying an external,it needs to be usb 3.0. dont think 2.0 works at all.

And have you guys tried out PacMan 256? Its now available on the X1 and probably other platforms I'm guessing. Pretty damn fun,found myself playing it all evening and upgrading the power ups you earn by earning points(eating everything around the maze.) $5.00 well spent for me.

[atarifanboi]

Yep, I have a 2TB external drive and it MUST BE USB 3.0 in order for it to perform properly.

 

Mine cost about £80 and there is no obvious difference in running games between the internal and external drives, and in fact in some cases I'd even go so far as to say that the external drive can be faster.

 

Also, when buying an external drive for your Xbox One, there are a lot that state they are Xbox specific, and they charge more for them. Steer clear and just get a decent USB 3.0 drive with its own power supply. Mine is a Seagate.

[Unbeliever]

Good advice on the hard drive dilemma. To thing I was happy way back in the day with a 20 megabyte internal hard drive on my Mac SE. Times sure have changed, haven't they? And PhoenixMoonPatrol, I'll look for that in the Xbox store tonight. I have Pacman on my machine already, along with Ms. Pacman and Asteroids/Deluxe. I had to have SOME arcade games, after all.

 

So far no "crowding" issues with space, but that could rapidly change in the next few months. I'll keep the external hard drive on my radar for the near future, as eventually I will be forced to get one or delete older games off my system.

 

Fallout 4 has now captivated me. I'm "better" at it than before, and it's getting so distracting I keep forgetting to go do side quests and the main quest. There's way too much going on. And meeting the Synths for the first time? Priceless. Their weapons aren't the greatest, though. Just needed their power cells for the most part.