Xbox One Console Reviews
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Is a gamepad worth $150? That's the question Microsoft is asking with the Xbox One Elite controller, a revamp of its almost two-year-old paddle that shipped with the Xbox One. The company isn't targeting this as a device for the mainstream, though. Rather, the Elite is instead for highly competitive gamers -- the type that'd mod their controllers with third-party accessories for greater precision. The customization it offers comes at a steep price, costing over twice as much as the standard $60 controller.
Why should you care? Because the vanilla Xbox One controller feels like a cheap knock-off of the vaunted Xbox 360 pad that came before it. Microsoft said it spent over $100 million designing it, considering smell-o-vision and even a built-in projector for the gamepad, only to wind up with a mostly inferior clone. It has too many sharp edges, feels incredibly hollow and seems, well, cheap. Honestly, one of the biggest reasons I don't play my Xbox One much as my PlayStation 4 is because I prefer the latter's DualShock 4 controller. Keep all that in mind when you consider the following statement: I've been using the Elite controller for almost a week and I haven't wanted to put it down; this is the Xbox One gamepad we should've had from the outset.
PROS
Feels great in-hand; very grippy finish throughout
Loads of customization options
Mature, understated design
Improves on the standard Xbox One gamepad in every way
Bumper buttons are finally, actually usable
CONS
Expensive
Levers and faceted d-pad don't feel secure
Feels heavy at first
Clamshell case doesn't keep everything in place
Customization options could be overwhelming for some
SUMMARY
The Elite controller is the best Xbox gamepad Microsoft has ever made, but it doesn't come cheap. At $150, your best bet is waiting for a price drop or a bundle deal unless you're dead-set on getting a leg up against folks online.
Out of the box, the Elite looks like a superficial upgrade. Aside from the 3.5mm headphone jack up front and the new slider control underneath and equidistant from the Menu and Options buttons, you'd be forgiven for confusing the Elite pad with the standard one. It's when you start futzing around with the different thumbstick options or snapping metal levers into the underside that the gamepad starts looking unique.
The Elite comes with a clamshell case that has a molded space for the controller, a cargo pouch for spare earbuds, batteries and the pack-in, braided micro-USB cable (a requirement for most tournaments) that will tether the pad to a console. There's also a molded rubber holder that keeps the four control levers, two sets of thumbsticks and spare directional pad in place. The idea behind the latter is that it'll keep your extra parts secure during travel so they don't fall out after unzipping the case. In practice, everything stayed in place for me aside from the faceted directional pad -- its section is too loose to keep that from bouncing around. On the flip side, the cross-style option fit incredibly snugly.
The first thing I noticed when I picked up the controller to pair it with my console was how heavy it was compared to the standard gamepad. Microsoft says that with all four levers attached, a pair of included Duracell AAs and standard thumbsticks, the Elite weighs 348 grams, give or take 15. That's 12.3 ounces compared to its predecessor's 9.9 ounces. Honestly, though, the only time I noticed was when I picked it up since more often than not, when I'm gaming, my hands rest in my lap.
That heft likely comes from the Elite's revamped innards. The thumbsticks feel incredibly springy and precise, thanks to their metal construction. I've never been a fan of the sticks on the Xbox One pad. They've always felt rough and just weren't comfortable to me. With the Elite, I had the option of choosing among three different sets (standard, tall and a pair of convex heads) and changing them on the fly, but most of the time I was perfectly happy with the standard set. All are incredibly comfortable, though, and have the same premium feel as the rest of the controller.
Depending on the game, I opted for different configurations. For Halo 5: Guardians, I stuck a standard stick on the left and one of the twice-as-tall options on the right. With Forza Motorsport 6, I reversed that. Why? With shooters, the extra height gave me more leverage and ensured I wouldn't hit a face button by accident while aiming my assault rifle at my quarry. In a racing game, the added height made steering a lot easier.
Not only have the thumbsticks gotten an overhaul, but also the pots they sit in did too. Microsoft added a low-friction ring to where the stick makes contact with the faceplate and the result is pretty dramatic. Movement just feels smoother because the metal shafts glide effortlessly around when you're pushing them toward the edges. It makes using the controller a bit quieter, too.
The sync button's now sharing a lime green hue with the d-pad socket, hair-trigger locks and contact points for the control levers. What are those? Metal pieces between an inch and an inch and a half long that act as secondary inputs for any button on the controller. There are four total (two angled, two straight) and you can arrange them in a number of different ways, some correct and others less so. It's possible, for example, to arrange them in a way where they'll overlap. Like the rest of the custom options, these hold in place magnetically and if you'd rather not use them, that's entirely up to you.
One of my biggest complaints about the standard controller is how stiff the right and left shoulder buttons are. They have an incredibly narrow sweet spot to register a depression and using them has always felt really hit or miss to me, with the innermost edge being damn near impossible to press in. With the Elite, that gripe's been eliminated. Here, they're a little easier to press at their outermost edges, but even at the opposite end (where the actuators reside) it takes dramatically less effort and is more even all the way across. Both the shoulder buttons and the triggers below feature a matte silver finish versus the standard's slippery black gloss, and the latter's throw is about 3/16 of an inch shorter. And rather than the standard triggers' squishy feel, these make a firm click when you bottom out.
The battery tray is in the same place as before, but now it has markers indicating what position the hair-trigger locks are in. Immediately on either side are the recessed metal knobs that take the analog triggers and dramatically reduce the distance you need to pull before your on-screen gun fires.
I couldn't find a use for the faceted d-pad during my review, but supposedly it's better for pulling combos in fighting games. As a button masher (rest assured I'm not quitting my day job for eSports) it felt like the magnet was barely able to hold the concave piece of metal in place. Sure, it looks cool, but once I installed the metallic cross d-pad, I never took it out. The A, B, X and Y buttons changed from green, red, blue and yellow, respectively, to all black. And the aforementioned standard headphone jack rests off to the side of where the previously required headset adapter did on the standard controller, while a legacy connection for purpose-built headsets like the Astro A40 Xbox One Edition sits next to it. It's a smart move because it doesn't alienate anyone who bought a specific headset previously.
To me, the standard controller has always felt like a prototype rather than a final product -- with its rough edges and other questionable design choices. That isn't the case here. The Elite features a soft rubber finish on a majority of its surface, with a more aggressive diamond-pattern grip where your palms rest underneath. The DualShock 4 has a textured underside too, but it can't hold a candle to this. For example, sliding the Elite across the glass desk in my home office proved pretty difficult. I might as well have been dragging a pencil eraser across it. Even after a four-hour Halo 5 session, the controller didn't feel like it'd slip out of my moist palms.
The app
The customization options don't stop with the hardware -- there's an app that gives you the chance to completely rebind every button's function (aside from Menu and Options) to a different one. Want the digital shoulder buttons to perform the trigger duties? I can't recommend that, but go right ahead. How about adjusting the A, B, X and Y buttons so they mimic Nintendo's non-standard layout? Have at it. Effectively, this gives you complete control of how your gamepad works, without being subject to the tyranny of pre-defined control schemes on a game-by-game basis.
Beyond that there's a raft of other custom settings. The new slider button allows for swapping between two onboard control schemes, but you can create and save as many as you want to your system profile and access them from anywhere with an internet connection. There are independent adjustments for thumbstick sensitivity (slow start, fast start, instant, default) that govern how much distance the sticks need to travel before in-game movement registers. An option for adjusting trigger sensitivity and dead-zone is here too. Also, if you've ever wanted to turn down the haptic feedback, or turn it off completely, there's an option for that as well. Really, all that's missing is the ability to turn the guide button's light off completely and the option to permanently invert the right stick's Y-axis. The latter's especially puzzling considering you can swap left and right thumbstick assignments (so movement maps to the right stick and aiming goes to the left) within the app.
In use
Let's say you're like me and are incredibly overwhelmed by the complexity of remapping every button on the controller. That's where game developer-made presets come into play. There are only a handful available right now and they're all for first-party games like Halo, Forza 6 and Gears of War, but Microsoft promises more are en route for Star Wars: Battlefront III and Call of Duty: Black Ops III. The Halo 5 preset tailored to campaign mode, for instance, liberates squad commands and waypoint location from their cumbersome position on the d-pad to the control levers. Reaching down to the d-pad to tell Team Osiris to attack an enemy is awkward, but assigning that task to the levers makes perfect sense because it's always within reach.
More dramatic is the difference the levers make in Forza 6, where they serve as paddle shifters and a clutch for manual transmissions. They're really useful; I've never been comfortable using a stick shift with a gamepad, but since I don't have the space in my apartment, a racing wheel isn't feasible. That isn't the case anymore. But, having all four levers in place (manual requires two; manual with clutch doubles that) clutters things up a bit. Anytime I put all four on regardless of the game, I ran the risk of accidentally pressing a few simultaneously. What's more, of everything on the controller, the levers feel most likely to fall off while playing because the magnets don't seem as strong as elsewhere on the gamepad.
The previous controller's battery life is incredible, and after roughly 15 hours during my review, the fresh set of standard AAs had only worn down to 75 percent capacity. I have no doubt that the Elite will match or best its forebearer's battery lifespan, especially considering the options for adjusting haptic motor intensity.
Wrap-up
Again, is all of this worth $150? That answer depends on how much and what you play on Xbox One -- regardless of your pro-gaming aspirations. Even disregarding the hardware customization options, there are considerable improvements. Were the Elite a $30 premium over the standard controller instead of $90, my recommendation would be a lot easier. Instead I'm hesitant: One of the controllers will set you back almost half of what the console you'd use it with costs. Sure, the Elite doesn't feel like a cheap toy, but everyone else might want to hold out for a price drop considering that the customization app is coming for the standard controller too, and the rubber handgrips I'm so fond of exist on another official gamepad. If you've been waiting to buy an Xbox One, go for the upcoming Elite bundle that packs the controller and a console sporting a 1TB hybrid drive for $499 because for now the controller's price is too hard to justify on its own.
thats precisely what Respawn did for Titanfall..then again they were like"why even bother to put a campaign when no one even plays it..?"
now games like Fallout 3/4,the Deus Ex series and Bioshock 1 and Infinite(2 had a wack MP mode IMO) and Wolfenstein The New Order seem to be the go-to titles for ppl who like campaigns/stories
Games like COD & battlefield are basically MP games. They will move copies without the SP campaign at this point. Popular titles like Halo & Gears are single player games that happens to have good to solid multiplayer.
Trying to release it with the movie killed the SP probably. It's not like they couldn't have simply created a rebel scout to play as while putting you in pilot mission. I'm a Star Wars fan but I don't play FPS titles. There's probably a 3rd person tile in early development. Sucks that 1313 was scrapped along with the Darth Maul game.
Assassin's Creed Syndicate Reviews
Polygon - 8.5/10
kotaku
http://kotaku.com/assassins-creed-syndicate-the-kotaku-review-1738153417
Gamespot - 9/10
GameInformer - 9/10
Polygon - 8.5/10
IGN - 8.2
kotaku
http://kotaku.com/assassins-creed-syndicate-the-kotaku-review-1738153417
Gamespot - 9/10
GameInformer - 9/10
GamesRadar - 4/5
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">From <a href="https://twitter.com/Target">@Target</a>: Get an Xbox One GoW Bundle & 50” Samsung LED TV for $799.98 (free shipping) <a href="https://t.co/e4jPyPXj3R">https://t.co/e4jPyPXj3R</a> <a href="https://t.co/HfLdqN6wm5">pic.twitter.com/HfLdqN6wm5</a></p>— Larry Hryb (@majornelson) <a href="https://twitter.com/majornelson/status/657362147182297092">October 23, 2015</a></blockquote>
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PS4 need something like this cuz those small ass options/share buttons on the DS4 are useless
I'm trying to hold out, but that elite controller is calling me.
I bet this thing drops $20- $30 in November on slick deals, and CAG.
Missed a deal. The elite controller dropped to $128.24 - $135 at Target.
Now it's sold out
I wouldn't be surprised to see them drop to about $100 in a couple months...might be a good thing that you missed em
I could do a $100 because it's only $40 more than the standard controller. Gamestop is running a promotion where you can trade in a controller and get $35 credit.
I think that ends today and is only for the 2 Halo themed controller or that white/black/gold accented controller
Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk
The white/black/gold controller is nice. Did you have a chance to hold it yet? It has a grainy textured back that makes it easier to grip the controller. I want it, but if I'm going to drop $60 bucks, I'd rather put it do Fallout or the new Tomb Raider.
I will wait until Black Friday or Christmas when they're on sales for $99.99.
Yeah I refuse to spend more than a hundo on that controller
Nah the trade in thing allows you to trade in an old controller and get a $35 dollar trade in credit towards the purchase of the new one. So you'd end up spending $35-$40 for a new one
Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk
man do not play w/ me...for a split sec I thought this pic was a preview picture for red dead redemption 2 lol
dunno why EA wasted their time w/ BF Hardline..most of those servers like this now
I just tried to do this deal. And these fuckers at gamestop told me the deal doesn't officially start until after 12 
which will be the 27th the flyer says the 26th.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Get $10 extra credit when you trade a PS4 or Xbox One game towards Halo 5: Guardians. <a href="http://t.co/WIMWPC9fBz">pic.twitter.com/WIMWPC9fBz</a></p>— GameStop (@GameStop) <a href="https://twitter.com/GameStop/status/654702286015369218">October 15, 2015</a></blockquote>
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which will be the 27th the flyer says the 26th.<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Get $10 extra credit when you trade a PS4 or Xbox One game towards Halo 5: Guardians. <a href="http://t.co/WIMWPC9fBz">pic.twitter.com/WIMWPC9fBz</a></p>— GameStop (@GameStop) <a href="https://twitter.com/GameStop/status/654702286015369218">October 15, 2015</a></blockquote>
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Halo 5: Guardians Reviews
Polygon - 9
Giant Bomb - 4.0/5
IGN - 9
Developer 343 Industries has engineered the strongest combat Halo has ever seen, with tons of excellent weapons, varied maps, an expansive and intense new multiplayer mode joining a host of returning greats, and some game-changing new mobility. At the same time, Guardians repeats Halo 4’s mistake of telling a story that can’t stand on its own without Halo’s expanded universe. This hurts, but doesn’t ruin, its otherwise impressive cooperative campaign.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/10/26/halo-5-guardians-review?
EGM 9/10
Kotaku - Impressions
The Verge
Eurogamer - Review in Progress
Polygon - 9
Giant Bomb - 4.0/5
IGN - 9
Developer 343 Industries has engineered the strongest combat Halo has ever seen, with tons of excellent weapons, varied maps, an expansive and intense new multiplayer mode joining a host of returning greats, and some game-changing new mobility. At the same time, Guardians repeats Halo 4’s mistake of telling a story that can’t stand on its own without Halo’s expanded universe. This hurts, but doesn’t ruin, its otherwise impressive cooperative campaign.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/10/26/halo-5-guardians-review?
EGM 9/10
Destructoid - 7.0/10
Escapist 4.5/5
GamesRadar
Kotaku - Impressions
US Gamer 4/5
The Verge
Eurogamer - Review in Progress
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We have a date now.
Microsoft will officially release its revamped dashboard for the Xbox One and Xbox 360 backward compatibility for its current console on Nov. 12, Xbox head Phil Spencer announced today during a livestream.
The update will go out to all Xbox One owners.
The Xbox One's new user interface, dubbed the New Xbox One Experience, and support for select Xbox 360 titles have been available to some console owners as part of Microsoft's preview program since September. Microsoft promises that the new Xbox One UI will offer faster performance and improved ease-of-use, as well as tighter integration with Windows 10.
Microsoft says that more than 100 Xbox 360 games will be playable on Xbox One via backward compatibility at launch. That includes Xbox 360 classics like the Gears of War series, Mass Effect, Viva Piñata, Geometry Wars and Borderlands. A list of currently supported Xbox 360 games is available at Xbox.com.
Microsoft will officially release its revamped dashboard for the Xbox One and Xbox 360 backward compatibility for its current console on Nov. 12, Xbox head Phil Spencer announced today during a livestream.
The update will go out to all Xbox One owners.
The Xbox One's new user interface, dubbed the New Xbox One Experience, and support for select Xbox 360 titles have been available to some console owners as part of Microsoft's preview program since September. Microsoft promises that the new Xbox One UI will offer faster performance and improved ease-of-use, as well as tighter integration with Windows 10.
Microsoft says that more than 100 Xbox 360 games will be playable on Xbox One via backward compatibility at launch. That includes Xbox 360 classics like the Gears of War series, Mass Effect, Viva Piñata, Geometry Wars and Borderlands. A list of currently supported Xbox 360 games is available at Xbox.com.
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