It’s been an interesting start to the 9th generation of consoles for Xbox and their Series X/S consoles. A continued lack of killer first-party titles has been exposed, but it doesn’t mean there aren’t killer features on the platform.
However, it’s not all bad. What Microsoft has managed to create with the Series X/S is a phenomenal piece of equipment that will only get better as we advance through this generation.
So, in this piece, we thought we’d give out four underrated Xbox Series X features that folks out there may not appreciate for their true worth. [Wondering about PlayStation 5’s underrated features? You can find them here.]
Quick Resume
This is something I think Xbox could have promoted more given that PlayStation doesn’t have a feature that comes close to Quick Resume. The feature won’t be for everyone. Some gamers focus on just one game until they either get bored or finish it.
But, for those of you who switch between 3-4 games at any one time, Quick Resume will be a godsend. While not every title supports the feature yet, you can be sure that Xbox will be on to developers convincing them to incorporate it.
However, even if certain games don’t use it, their load times will still be far quicker than One X/S. You’ll just have to sit through the promotional shtick before getting to the actual game.
Games On The Go
Another feature that shows PlayStations’ lack of awareness in the subscription space, Game Pass Ultimate- which includes Project xCloud- has become the best deal in gaming, by a distance.
Not only do you get a library of over 100 games but you also get every Xbox first-party game included the day they launch. With Ultimate, you can also play your games on a multitude of mobile devices including tablets. iOS support is coming in the new year for Project xCloud.
While xCloud is far from perfect, it’s still the first iteration of this type of service from Xbox. Just think how much better it’ll be in 5 years.
Disc Installation Improvement
So, this didn’t work on my One X but it seems that you can now install a game for a disc while it’s in a low power state. Gone are the days of having your Xbox chug away with the fans blowing a gale waiting for a 50+GB game to install.
Disc downloads also seem to be faster on Series X as well. Certainly, Red Dead 2 seemed to install a hell of a lot faster on Series X than my One X.
How useful this will be to players considering the exponential growth of digital sales, is anyone’s guess but for those of us who still love physical media, it’s very much appreciated.
Choose What To Install
With storage space quite limited and games getting bigger and bigger, it was vital that Microsoft and Sony are up with a plan to maximize the storage space available to players.
Thankfully, Microsoft delivered for players. If you are playing game that has a significant multiplayer component like a GTA or COD, you can now choose which part of the game you want. Either the Single player campaign or multiplayer.
COD games are just ridiculous in size especially when you consider the merger length of the single-player campaign in this year’s entry. CoD Black Ops Cold War took up 190GB of space if you chose to install the full game. That’s madness when the campaign only takes 5-6 hours to complete. Don’t forget to read our review of CoD Black Ops Cold War.
That’s just a taste of the features Xbox Series X/S have to improve user experience. No doubt we’ll get bombarded with suggestions as to why this or that wasn’t included. Have a look at our PlayStation 5 list of underrated features here.