The original Xbox holds a place in my heart. No, it wasn’t my first gaming console or even the first one I bought alone. It has the legacy of being the first online gaming experience I had. Xbox Live and LAN gaming was a game changer. No longer were gamers only facing the computer, but gamers who thought similarly to them and were working with or against you to win the game.
Fast forward to the fourth generation of the Xbox, Xbox Live has morphed into Xbox Game Pass, and the console advancements and network speeds have given gamers an experience beyond what we could’ve dreamed.
I have an Xbox One S, the underpowered little brother of the Xbox One X. Even with that said, I use it daily as a focused distraction, something I can do on my breaks. It blows my poor Nintendo Switch out of the water with graphics and online gaming features like game chat. I enjoy hours of social enjoyment playing games with family and friends, mainly over the internet.
Talking of online features, with Xbox Game Pass ($16 a month at this time), there is a comprehensive library of games that can be downloaded and played from the console at no additional cost. The best part is these aren’t all short independent titles but AAA games like Halo and Grand Theft Auto 5.
With Xbox Game Pass comes a feature that has removed my Nintendo Switch from my EDC, Xbox Cloud Gaming. It is incredible that Cloud Gaming is still in beta and can suffer many lag issues depending on the local Wi-Fi network speeds. I have difficulty expressing my joy and amazement playing Halo: The Master Chief Collection on my iPad Pro or even my iPhone while on break at a coffee shop. The ability to play these games on almost any device with a web browser, even if the hardware won’t support the graphics and doesn’t have the processing power to bring these games to life, is transformative. The other day, I played Halo 3 matchmaking with friends from all over the country in a park. I set up my iPhone on 5G and an Xbox wireless controller, and we were off to the races. There were only two minor hiccups in my connection, and I lagged. That is very impressive.
While Xbox Cloud Gaming is still in beta, Xbox Remote Play is not. As the name implies, I can access the games that are on my Xbox One S and stream the gameplay of any game downloaded to the Xbox as if I were physically in front of my Xbox One S. While I find this a little laggier due to my local Wi-Fi connection and broadband speeds, It makes it a wonderful experience for games that aren’t available on Xbox Cloud Gaming.
The Xbox hasn’t completely replaced the Nintendo Switch, but I find myself slowly moving further and farther away thanks to the Xbox and all the features that Microsoft offers. Have you tried the latest generation of Xbox consoles or any Xbox Game Pass or Remote Play features? What is your gaming setup both at home and on the go?
