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o understand the Xbox One X, you have to remember how badly Microsoft botched the launch of the Xbox One. From a position of total dominance, it came up with a console that was both more expensive and less powerful than Sony’s Playstation 4, and initially it was even going to restrict how you could play and sell on your games.

All in all, it’s hard to describe such a catastrophe without the use of profanity. So let’s talk about the Xbox One X instead. The ‘world’s most powerful games console’ is built to make the most of that 4K television you upgraded to not so long ago with gorgeous HDR visuals, impossibly smooth performance and super-fast loading times. Such is the sheer oomph that Microsoft has packed into this modest black box, the One X is technically 40% more powerful than Sony’s Ultra Hd-capable Playstation 4 Pro.

So does this Herculean slab of hardware live up to its lofty expectations? Yes, so long as you’re OK with some games using behind-the-scenes trickery to hit that magic 4K marker, and with your choice of titles not being quite so dazzling as they are on Sony’s machine. You see, even with six teraflops of graphical might, the Xbox One X is still going to force you to make a couple of compromises.