Received my Xbox One yesterday at 8:30PM (good job UPS
) and immediately got started on setting it all up. The cables were easy enough, but the on-screen picture of the Xbox One Controller telling me to press the "Xbox" button did nothing to get the controller to sync with the system. Looking in the paperwork, nothing there indicated anything. The button would simply flash for a while then turn itself off. So a quick Google search indicated that I needed to press a hidden button on the left side of the console to enter pairing mode, then within 20 seconds press the pairing button on top of the controller. Viola. Up and running.
Next up, I got the basic settings plugged in and began a mandatory 1.5 gig system update. This took about 30 minutes. Pretty basic stuff for a first-time system setup. Since I have long since forgotten my Xbox Live sign-on info, I made a new account. It gave me a retarded default name and an ugly little avatar pic. Oh well.
Finally, I can pop Halo 5 Guardians in and play an actual game! Uhm...where is my option to start my game? When I put a PS4 game in, typically within a minute or less you can start playing at least the single player mode. Nope, not here. After a 20 minute (roughly) setup process for the physical connections (remember I had to google how to get the controller working) and a 30+ minute update, I now have to sit and wait nearly an hour for the counter to slowly crawl to 100%. Mind you, I declined the update to keep the process moving along smoothly, especially since the update was over 35 gigs!
Alrighty, I can launch the game! Halo 5 Guardians, here we go! Oh...I can't decline the update to play. No matter what I try. I get kicked back to the dashboard. I have to go manually
turn off my Wi-Fi connection in the settings panel which by the way is buried in a panel on the left side of the screen. Alright, I'm in the game! The graphics are pretty sweet. The cinematography is excellent. The controls are tight and that shotgun has a pretty strong kick. Unfortunately, I'm tired as hell by this point having worked all week and been dealing with 100-degree days. My fat ass is spent.
So now I turn the Wi-Fi back on and begin the arduous 35 gig update. I figure I'll go to bed, get up in the morning and it will be done. So then I can pop the Master Chief Collection in and get it started downloading and I can be playing that by this weekend too. Well...from around 11PM last night to 6AM this morning, the update progressed to 35%. At this rate and if my download speeds remain fairly constant (which is a longshot), the update should be completed by about 7PM this evening. Again, that's a long shot with my inconsistent internet speeds.
So that's it in a nutshell. My first experience with an Xbox One aside from store demos. I'm sure the games will be fun once I get to play them. And the console is pretty. At this point though, I cannot interrupt the update process for Halo 5, so I can't even play the single player mode until it's done. I also can't remove the game and put another in since I don't have any installed yet. So basically, the Xbox One has absolutely zero function as a gaming unit until such time as this ridiculously large download completes. Hopefully this evening. Before bedtime.