XBOX SERIES X
Microsoft’s high-end games machine makes a great first impression, but lacks new titles
Packing an enormous amount of processing power, yet looking as dull as a NAS drive, the Xbox Series X is the biggest (so far) of Microsoft’s entries into the new generation of games consoles. Its little brother, the Series S, is thinner, less powerful, and better looking.
The console itself is a black cuboid more than twice as fat as the Xbox One X console that proceeded it. The Series X is clean and minimalist, and will blend into a lot of setups quite easily without offending the eye.
Getting the system set up is a piece of cake. You plonk it down horizontally or vertically, then plug in the power cord and connect the system to one of your TV’s HDMI ports with the included cable.
When running at full tilt, the Series X expels quite a lot of hot air, and its cooling system is designed to draw air in from one end of the console (its base) and expel it through the other (its top). You need to keep the console well ventilated.
The front of the Series X is adorned with just a single USB port, as well as a small disc eject button and controller syncing button. Round the back things get more interesting, with power and HDMI connections, as well as an Ethernet port, a brace of
USB ports, and the console’s custom storage expansion slot.
Inside, it’s packing 12 teraflops of processing power, delivered by AMD’s latest CPU GPU architectures; paired with a 1TB NVMe SSD, the Series X absolutely smokes Xbox’s last flagship, the Xbox One X.
POWER PLAY
Setting the console up is almost entirely handled through the companion Xbox app on a mobile phone or tablet. There’s a lot to do, from setting up an internet connection to updating firmware on the console and the controller, dictating privacy and communication settings, allowing or blocking automatic game updates, establishing an energy profile and much more.
The Series X target for gameplay is 60fps at 4K resolution, while also offering a 120Hz refresh rate and theoretical maximum framerate of 120fps, and there really is no going back (even to the Xbox One X) once you’ve sampled this smoothness and fidelity. It feels like an upgrade, especially in terms of the speed at which everything loads.
Last-gen games, often tied to spinning hard drives, had some absolutely appalling load times. Gamers often reported waiting up to five minutes for a game to load initially and that, quite frankly, was not acceptable.
That improvement is thanks to the Xbox Velocity Architecture and, even more specifically, its NVMe SSD. The improvement doesn’t just relate to new games, either, with older titles benefiting from the quicker read and write times the SSD offers. The excellent Quick Resume feature lets you open and play multiple games, then have their states saved by the console so that you can quickly flip between them as desired.
On previous-gen hardware only one game could be cached like this, meaning every time you loaded up a different game the previous was wiped and would then have to be reloaded through loading bars, credits and menu screen.
TAKING CONTROL
The Series X comes with the new design wireless Xbox Controller, which anyone who has spent any time with an Xbox One console will be very familiar with. The new controller essentially shares the same design as the older controller but has a few more design elements from the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller 2, which grant it a slightly more premium and mature aesthetic.
In the hand, this controller is as comfortable as ever, and comes with nice details such as textured triggers and bumpers (great for keeping a firm hold when the action gets intense) and an updated D-pad optimised for faster and smoother inputs.
As before, too, you get Share, Menu and Options buttons, which allow you to quickly record your gaming sessions as well as access options. Naturally, the Xbox logo power button on the controller remains, as too do the XYBA button config and dual thumbstick design.
The controller’s finish is the same slightly coarse matte black that past
Xbox controllers have used, which looks clean and isn’t slippy. It does tend to attract finger smudge marks, though, so for those gamers who like to keep their kit looking box fresh, a regular polish will be in order.
It’s still powered by AA batteries, though, and Microsoft’s official stance on this is that it’s what gamers want: it gives the controller a longer lifespan as its batteries are easier to replace than the built-in rechargeable cells used by PlayStation consoles. We’re not convinced, as fumbling for new AAs feels a bit 1980s.
Storage expansion is well implemented, courtesy of the rear-mounted expansion port. Feed this with an expansion card (Seagate makes the only one right now),and it immediately injects the system with more space for games and media.
It is purely plug-and-play, and while the Series X already delivers about 800GB of room for games out of the box, enthusiastic gamers will definitely benefit from more storage, as game install sizes have been swelling as they become more complex and visually elaborate.
BIG GAME HUNTING
In terms of standout features, the Series X’s ability to play games going
back three console generations, even back to the original Xbox console, is definitely something Microsoft needs to be applauded for.
This ability to play the lion’s share of past-gen Xbox games is then buoyed by Xbox Game Pass, a monthly subscription that gives you access to a truck-load of great games to play at any time. The launch library of new and, specifically, exclusive games may be a little underwhelming, but you can’t say there is nothing to play on it.
Let’s talk Series X optimised games first. A number of Xbox games have been optimised for the system, offering faster load times, higher framerates at 4K resolutions, as well as more eye candy, such as realtime ray-tracing. You can see a list of these games at the official Xbox website. Forza Horizon 4, Ori and the Will
of the Wisps and Destiny 2 are a few of these titles, and the optimisations are really well implemented. The games look better, run better and load better on the new console. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, which is arguably the new game that Xbox Series X is being sold on, wasn’t available as T3 went to press, and this really hammers home the lack of new, exclusive games to play on Series X right now.
This flagship, next-gen, Microsoft console isn’t even launching with a new Halo game, let alone a new Gears or Forza. There’s also no new stand-out IP, and when the third party offering is so tiny, it runs the risk of disappointing those who buy one expecting brand new games.
Instead, the system is launching with a bunch of optimised past-gen games and a few new cross-platform third-party titles, which are crossgen and, in the nicest possible way, tied at their core to last-gen consoles. The experiences they deliver benefit from the extra eye candy, loading times and framerates that the Series X is capable of, and while these enhance immersion and gameplay, they don’t raise the videogame bar significantly.
What you get with the Xbox Series X right now is a way to play a lot of great games in the best possible way on console, while also securing the ability to enjoy proper next-gen games when they eventually appear. It’s a shame we’re not all playing Halo
Infinite right now and seeing this incredible system flex its muscles, but the Series X is still the best Xbox console you can buy today (maybe the best console full stop) and will deliver some truly astounding new game experiences over its lifespan.
This could very well be the last console generation we ever see with this sort of traditional in-the-home hardware, though, and if it is then Microsoft has certainly swung for the fences with the Xbox Series X. This is a console that can go the distance and, for that reason more than any other, we warmly recommend it to gamers the world over.