5 Things to Know About the Xbox One

The big day is almost here! The Xbox One will be hitting stores this Friday, November 22. It will be the second of the next generation consoles to be released, following the PlayStation 4 which came out last Friday and sold one million units in its first 24 hours. If you're like me you've been waiting for the newest Xbox to come out or maybe you're still trying to decide which console to buy. Either way there are a few things that you need to know before spending the big bucks.

1. What You Get.

When you're spending $499 on a game system, it better be loaded with tons of great stuff and the Xbox One delivers. Of course when you buy one you will get the console, a controller, a HDMI cable, and a power cable, but that's not all. You will also get a brand new Kinect Sensor and a headset, which was almost not included. Unlike the PS4, which has an internal power source, the Xbox One still comes with a power brick that you'll have to find room for.

2. Technology

The Xbox One will be completely up to date with the latest technology including a 8-core x86 processor that will let you seamlessly switch between games and apps. Plus there is a built in 500GB hard drive and 8GB of RAM so you should have plenty of room for all your favorite games, music, and movies. If you're still thinking that isn't enough space for you, don't worry, you will be able to connect external hard drives to boost your memory space. Making it even better is the fact that most of the games for the Xbox One will be available via download from the marketplace.

3. Games!

A great console is going to need amazing games to get people into it and there are tons of great titles on the Xbox One. On the launch date there will be a total of 21 games available in stores or digitally. Exclusive titles include Forza Motorsport 5 and Dead Rising 3 while there will several cross-platform games including Call of Duty: Ghost, Battlefield 4, and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag as well as several sport games including Madden 25, NBA 2K14 and FIFA 14. For a complete list check this out.

4. Cable Integration

There's been a lot of talk about the Xbox One being the center piece of your entertainment system and that is diffidently the truth. The console will include an HDMI In port so you will be able to plug your cable box directly into it. That means that you'll be able to switch from gaming to watching your favorite shows in a matter of seconds, you could also watch TV on the side of the screen while playing your games. The Xbox One will also comes with its own programming guide, called OneGuide, which will let you organize your favorite channels and allow you to use the Kinect voice command to change to channel.

5. Kinect

The Kinect is what truly sets the Xbox One ahead of the rest. The Xbox team has stressed that the motion-capturing camera Kinect is a much more sophisticated device than its predecessor. Unlike the original Kinect camera, the updated version will be able to sense the number of people in the room, see their skeletons, monitor their heartbeats and can even recognize faces, which allows the Xbox One to log you in just by recognizing your face and it can even tell who in the room is giving it directions and can tailor its requests to the speaker.

There's tons of great features about the Xbox One and I may just be saying this because I am a huge Microsoft fan, but it is defiantly the console I'll be trying to get my hands on. The Xbox One will be hitting stores this Friday.