I'll keep this short because I've already talked WAY too much about the Xbone.
Basically, Microsoft has reversed their position on the online requirements.
I should be happy about this, but I'm actually not.
Why? Well, because this means that pretty much all of the unique things that I liked about the Xbone (family sharing, game installing, switching games mid-stream) are being sacrificed at the altar in order to make this backpedaling possible.
Basically, the Xbone will function in pretty much the same way the Xbox 360 functions in regards to games.
I get that this isn't all that different from the PS4 and thus it might seem silly that I'm still siding with Sony on this, but there's three main things:
1) The PS4 is still $100 cheaper.
2) Sony didn't have to deal with everybody screaming at them before they decided to respect their consumers.
3) The PS4's digital game restrictions are still better than the Xbone's.
So really, now that the Xbone isn't chained to the Internet and it doesn't have all of those cool game-sharing perks, what does it have over the PS4?
Kinect? Meh. It's cool, but I can get it for the PC.
Dead Rising 3? Honestly it looks boring when compared to the two that came before it and I'm kinda tired of zombie games.
Killer Instinct? After hearing that they got a company known for crapping out licensed games to produce this and that they're using the free-to-play model in the way you shouldn't do it, I suddenly couldn't care less.
Ryse? A game that is mostly comprised of quick-time-events that you don't even need to do in order to succeed? And people say that "Heavy Rain" is basically a game that plays itself.
Microsoft probably won over some people by doing this backpedal, but they still have the problem of explaining what makes their system worth the additional $100.
If they had done this backpedal but had the balls to keep in the installation and family game sharing, that actually would have probably won me over. But they didn't, and so I'm still at a loss to see why it's worth it.
Microsoft, you've gone from an F to a C-. Try again.
