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"  It&amp;#039;s round two in the battle for video game supremacy. Microsoft&amp;#039;s Xbox One will be released on November 22 in the U.S. for $500 and faces some stiff competition from Sony&amp;#039;s PlayStation 4, which released last Friday. The gloves are off and these two heavyweights are fighting for your gaming affection. Design The Xbox One looks and feels like it&amp;#039;s carved from a block of granite. The sharp lines and glossy finish are easy on the eyes, and the aggressive curves and lights from the Xbox 360 have been toned down. The console is an enormously heavy black box with beveled edges, a slot load drive, and the familiar Xbox logo on the front. The top of the unit is designed to be a heat vent and all the ports are tucked away on the back. Microsoft kept the power brick with the intent on keeping everything cool and whisper quiet. Except for the glowing logo, you can&amp;#039;t tell the system is on. The One&amp;#039;s design is less gaming system and more home entertainment. In fact it&amp;#039;s very reminiscent of a boxy, 80&amp;#039;s VCR. The Xbox One is stuck in landscape so it can be tucked horizontally right under your TV. Smart move, since Microsoft also wants to take over your channel-surfing duties. Engine The Xbox One is a powerful piece of hardware with similar specs to the PS4. Microsoft claims its new console has 10 times the power of its predecessor, the Xbox 360. The heart of the unit is an 8-Core x86 processor with an 853MHz GPU clock speed. The Xbox One system includes 8GB of RAM, DDR3 with 32MB eSRAM embedded memory (the PS4 uses DDR5). Inside, you&amp;#039;ll find a 500GB non-removable hard drive; the only way to upgrade your storage is through the 2 USB 3.0 expansion ports. Microsoft thankfully included a Blu-ray drive this time around, and to round out the specs, on the back of the unit there are HDMI in and out ports, S/PDIF audio out, 802.11a/b/g/n 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless, Kinect sensor (2.0) port and an Ethernet connector. Kinect The new Kinect comes bundled with the console and is a huge leap forward from the original. Kinect 2.0 features a 1080p camera, biometric scanning, instant switching, and supports up to six players at once. The new Kinect is so sensitive it can pick up the strain on the player&amp;#039;s body, read heart rates, and monitor facial expressions. That&amp;#039;s perfect for Xbox Fitness, an exclusive online service that has the most popular fitness personalities and videos like Jillian Michaels and P90X, but the Xbox One makes them interactive. Motion and voice controls are a heavy component of the Kinect this time. Just say the word &amp;quot;Xbox&amp;quot; and a corresponding phrase to activate a command. This is more than just a gimmick or a little &amp;quot;wow&amp;quot; factor to flaunt in front of friends. I found myself using it frequently and instinctively. For instance, when playing Killer Instinct, I wanted to purchase DLC. During the middle of the match, I said, &amp;quot;Xbox, go to store.&amp;quot; Xbox instantly brought up the store, I made my purchase, then said, &amp;quot;Xbox, go to Killer Instinct,&amp;quot; and I was brought back to the game where I left off. Yeah, it&amp;#039;s a sweet new feature.  Controller At first glance, you might not notice the controller has been modified. Microsoft kept the overall design of the original Xbox 360 controller while adding 40 new features. The same off-set thumbsticks are still present but with better grip and traction. The standard A, B, X, and Y get an addition of two buttons, Menu and View. The best new feature in the controller is called &amp;quot;impulse triggers.&amp;quot; The haptic feedback gives you a little jolt every time you crash or hit something. A pretty cool experience when it happens. Overall, the controller feels a bit more professional, responsive and better balanced in the hand. What I thought was perfect before just got a whole lot better.  Games It all boils down to gaming, and Microsoft comes out swinging. Forza Motorsport 5 is the Xbox One&amp;#039;s launch racing title. With fluid controls and smooth animation, Forza is simply stunning. I thought LocoCycle, despite its cheesy storyline\u2014like a B-Movie video game\u2014was casual fun. On the other hand, the reboot of Killer Instinct, a classic fight game, is an excellent example of graphically engaging, button-mashing action. Dead Rising 3 is an immersive third-person shooter that really shows off what the Xbox One can do.  TV and media integration The Xbox One wasn&amp;#039;t designed just for games; it wants to be your living room&amp;#039;s intelligent entertainment hub. Think 2001: A Space Odyssey minus the apathetic AI. Using the HDMI pass-through feature, you can integrate your cable provider&amp;#039;s service with the Xbox One&amp;#039;s UI. Additionally, voice integration makes navigating your television&amp;#039;s channels and streaming services easier: Say a command like &amp;quot;Xbox, what&amp;#039;s on the SyFy channel?&amp;quot; and the Xbox instantly tunes to that station. The responsiveness and range is excellent; I was able to change the channel from 25 feet away. As for streaming services, Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, and Hulu Plus are all included\u2014though again, HBO Go is MIA at launch\u2014and more are on the way. Bottom Line Should you buy an Xbox One? Yes, if the cache of exclusive games and features are enough to persuade you to pay for its premium price ($100 more than the PlayStation 4). The media functions, plus voice integration and gesture commands, are nice, but they&amp;#039;re still a work in progress. It&amp;#039;s worth waiting to see how Microsoft will continue to update its system with more matured features. Ultimately, deciding between the PS4 and the Xbox One will be a balancing act of platform and price. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/gaming/a9709/the-top-6-things-to-know-about-the-xbox-one-16176124/>