XBOX One "Lock Ins" at Game Stores.

The Swindon one is tomorrow night, but since putting my name down I haven't heard anything from them about times, etc. When I did put my name down there wasn't any advertising for this event and when I was in there on Friday I didn't notice anything about it then either. Will phone them tomorrow to find out what's happening.
 
So I went to the lock-in last night, only about 10 people turned up at 8 but there was probably 30 in total by 9pm and going by the amount of time spent queuing I'd have hated to go to an event with 70 people! Anyway, to sum up my impressions I would simply say 'disappointing'. Now I don't know whether it was the TVs or how the consoles were set up or just the fact the games were old builds but boy did some of them look rough in particular DR3 which could have been an Xbox 360 game as far as I'm concerned. Fifa 14, nothing special graphically, Ryse ok yes this looked very nice but the gameplay bored me to tears after 5 mins to the point I ended up putting the controller down as I simply couldn't be bothered playing it anymore. Forza, hmmmm mixed on this, from a distance it looked nice, from the 2 feet in front of the screen it really didn't look that good at all IMO, jaggies evident and fairly bland but that might have just been the track the demo was on and again a newer build might improve things considerably. The shocker for me though was DR3, omg the graphics were really appalling with low res textures and just the look of a PC game from 4 or 5 years ago really, incredibly disappointing. The controller is very nice I have to say, love the rumble triggers with Forza.
So, where to go from here, well fortunately the PS4 is out in the US next Friday so I'm a) gonna keep a close eye on reviews and impressions of that and b) keep an eye out for Xbox one reviews and impressions and try and make a decision, if I was just making my decision based on what I saw last night if that's representative of what to expect then I'd be cancelling my pre-order right now. Obviously though there's more to the Xbox one than 4 game demos of old builds, the OS looks nice, Kinect looks interesting and I really want to play Forza. On the other hand apart from Forza there's not much else grabbing me to be honest, Ryse looks pretty but was dull as was DR3 which was really boring I mean seriously how long can you kill zombies for no matter how many different ways there are to do it? Right now I'm 70/30 in favour of cancelling my pre-order and going for the PS4 because it is cheaper overall and more powerful there's no denying that. I honestly worry that the XB1 isn't as capable a machine as it needs to be to last the next 7 years or so without looking decidedly dated in 3 or 4 years time.
Oh and finally, the fanboyism on display was hilarious, if a PS4 was twice as powerful and ran games at twice the res and twice the framerate and had Kinect I swear to god the majority of people there last night would still have bought the XB1, some of the drivel that was coming out about the PS4 was crazy (it won't play blu-rays for example).
Anyway just thought I'd post my impressions , as I said overall quite disappointing if I'm honest but hopefully the retail games will have had some polish applied and everything will be hunky dorey, I hope so cos it would be nice to see the XB1 give the PS4 a run for it's money

Andy
 
Queue replies from people who went to a lock in or game show and have the totally opposite opinion to yours.

Fanboyism is blind ;)

Thanks for sharing your honest thoughts.

Disclaimer: I have pre-ordered both consoles lol.
 
I was registered to attend the white rose one. When i registered i was certain it was a weekday closer to the launch, so i werent too bothered about going. Just seen some pics on twitter for the even today tho. So it would seem i have missed it. Not long till we get our own now anyway.
 
So I went to the lock-in last night

Andy

All of the games being used, are builds from several months ago (about July time if I recall correctly)

Forza was a good tech demo of the haptic feedback from the new controller (if you turned off half of the driver aids in the settings menu) but the choice of Laguna Seca (as you said, bland track that most of us have driven to death) with only a one lap demo, wasn't the greatest choice.

Im assuming DR3 was the 15 minute demo with a locked down area and was really a demo of the amount of zombies that can be displayed/mowed down at any one time, that game had been heavily optimised since that build.

Fifa doesn't look an awful lot better (possibly to be expected since the gameplay is shown with small character on screen anyway) but the subtlety of the changes becomes evidence after a few games, both in the physics of the ball and players and also in the variety of different ways the player can make contact with the ball etc.

Ryse is an absolutely gorgeous looking game, though the playability might wane after single player campaign has been finalised (possibly sooner if you aren't a fan of the slightly slower pacing of the game)

PS4 is indeed "cheaper" but the launch line up is incredibly threadbare.If I were you, I would keep your preorder, safe in the knowledge that the exclusives will be very polished experiences and with the scope and integration of the new Kinect, you will be impressed when its in your home.
 
Personally I'd use these events mainly as a chance to check out the new controllers and little else. I went to a PS4 one and all they had running were demos of FIFA, Knack and Playroom. You have to wonder why they put these events on if they aren't going to go all out to impress folk and sell the consoles.

Some folk said that they could only show those games because of the age ratings, but the events were 18+ only so I don't buy that. Would have been good to have seen say BF4, Killzone and perhaps NFS at the PS4 one but it wasn't to be.
 
Personally I'd use these events mainly as a chance to check out the new controllers and little else. I went to a PS4 one and all they had running were demos of FIFA, Knack and Playroom. You have to wonder why they put these events on if they aren't going to go all out to impress folk and sell the consoles.

Some folk said that they could only show those games because of the age ratings, but the events were 18+ only so I don't buy that. Would have been good to have seen say BF4, Killzone and perhaps NFS at the PS4 one but it wasn't to be.

One observation I'd make is that in the run up to launch MS have made a lot more playable on the X1 at the tour events than Sony seem to have on the PS4.

Partly that is because MS have a tour and as far as I know Sony don't, but even the game lockins seem to have more games playable on X1 than PS4. Perhaps it is just a function of which has playable stable builds ready, I don't know....
 
Chatting with Ste Carter on twitter, has says you could pre-order Day One consoles with free FIFA at the lock in he went to (Leeds i think)

Now these had all sold out, but he reckons its a deal with GAME but you had to attend to be able to get one?

Anyone confirm deney this?

If i could get fifa free id possible be switching from PS4 to One
 
Chatting with Ste Carter on twitter, has says you could pre-order Day One consoles with free FIFA at the lock in he went to (Leeds i think)

Now these had all sold out, but he reckons its a deal with GAME but you had to attend to be able to get one?

Anyone confirm deney this?

If i could get fifa free id possible be switching from PS4 to One

News: Xbox One GAME pre-order console bundles revealed - rumour - Xbox 360 - The Official Magazine

Those are the rumoured GAME bundles, seems like you cannot order the ÂŁ429 free FIFA/Forza bundle anymore, but can get that game for free with another added in. Bit odd if true.

Other question is whether pre-orders are truly going to be release day ones now.
 
Other question is whether pre-orders are truly going to be release day ones now.

I haven't got the time to check it but I seem to remember reading that all pre-orders up to a date in August. were guaranteed Day One consoles. After that I guess it should be in the description of the product you bought.
 
Chatting with Ste Carter on twitter, has says you could pre-order Day One consoles with free FIFA at the lock in he went to (Leeds i think)

Now these had all sold out, but he reckons its a deal with GAME but you had to attend to be able to get one?

Anyone confirm deney this?

If i could get fifa free id possible be switching from PS4 to One

Best bet is to ring the appropriate store i guess.
 
I'm going to one tonight, in 2 minds really as I will own the console next week anyway...

Did I just say NEXT WEEK!!!!? :D
 
I haven't got the time to check it but I seem to remember reading that all pre-orders up to a date in August. were guaranteed Day One consoles. After that I guess it should be in the description of the product you bought.

The thing is Game may have set aside day one orders for the lock in events. I'm not sure.

But also Amazon have that August date for their pre-orders, if you ordered after that date launch day isn't guaranteed.

However, Game I think may be working differently in that they've taken pre-orders but not every customer will convert that into a completed order. So they may not have such a clear cut off date for when you will or will not get it day one (as it depends how many convert their pre-orders vs how much stock they get).
 
At the one I went to (Scunthorpe on Friday 8th) they said they had day 1 Fifa bundles available to order on that night for launch day and if you had a preorder already for phase 2 you could effectively jump the queue by pre-ordering at the lock in and guaranteeing one for launch
 

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