Sean played a bunch of games on the Xbox One X and tells Dave all about it while driving to work.

Overall Thoughts

• Results may vary. Always looked better, sometimes quite a bit (Gears4) sometimes less (Diablo3)

• Load times are most drastic, measurable improvement.

• I spent a lot of time downloading stuff this week. Trying to get the same games on X and S so I could flip inputs back and forth on 4K.

• I didn’t get as much time on a 1080p as I would’ve liked this week. Most comparisons were on 4K.

• Enhanced by Xbox matters. Wish there was a splash screen when the game loaded.

• There’s a value in the confidence of having the most power.

• Games that already looked good on Xbox look great - games that didn’t look good before won’t be saved with higher pixel count.

• You have plenty more to worry about now. HDR10, 10-bit color-capable TVs. Enhanced by X.

https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/xbox-one/xbox-one-x-enhanced-list

4K Comparisons. Enhanced by X vs Xbox One S

• Very few games released Enhancecd by X versions until November 2

• Diablo 3: Ultimate Evil Edition. Noticeably weather and environmental effects like fog and lighting - but the old version looked okay and the new version doesn’t blow your hair back.

Not Enhanced by X: X vs S

• Forza Motorsport 7: 30 seconds on X. 58 seconds on S.

  • Jaggy edges in S. Shadows are way too dark, lost details. Smoother, more colours, and greater exploration of shadows on X. Particularly noticeable in the cockpit view. Some dropped frames in cockpit on S, none on X.

Load Time Comparisons.

• Boot Times - nearly identical

• Gears 4. About 10 seconds faster on X (beginning of game)

• Shadow of War 1:30 to start playing on X; 2:00 on S

• Assassin’s Creed was the same

• Forza Motorsport 7: 30 seconds on X. 58 seconds on S.

Other considerations:

• Xbox One X pushes out a ton of heat out the back. Keep it ventilated.

• My TV doesn’t have HDR

• More Enhanced by Xbox X patches coming every day. Lots on Thursday.

  • Titanfall 2, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Quantum Break, Need for Speed, Halo 5, Halo 3. More to come on We The Nerdy and future Xbox Drives.

• I have a couple games (DOOM, Titanfall 2) coming from the library for PS4 to some third party comparisons.

• Quantum Break is 150GB after the Xbox One X Enhanced update, loads slowly.

Final Thoughts:

• Set your expectations appropriately. I wasn’t blown away but when I was able to compare, as close to side-by-side as possible, I noticed a difference. Load times are significantly faster, in some cases, on X.

• Buy a bigger hard drive. These texture packs are MASSIVE.

• I wish Xbox was more in your face about the games that have been enhanced. I’m not always sure - especially for those outside of the US, does the table on xbox.com correlate with what I have access to? I don’t think it does but I’m not sure one way or the other.

Read Sean's Review in Progress at http://wethenerdy.com/xbox-one-x-review-in-progress/ 

Dave Moore

Sean Capri