Xbox One Game Install Times Are Exasperating

The escalating file sizes of triple-A games, coupled with the relatively slow speeds of disc drives, has made game installation a modern necessity.

While this is an understandable trade-off for games that carry beautifully rich and detailed assets, the Xbox One's install times are painful. When taken completely offline, the console took around five minutes to install 13 percent of Assassin's Creed Unity, which was enough to make the game accessible to a point. The remainder took more than another half hour to fully install (which, bear in mind, locks out the chance of installing other applications). When taken online, Xbox One arbitrarily mixes update patches into the install process, which means there's every chance a new game will be inaccessible for at least an hour, if not more.

------I bought WWE 2K15 for Xbox One today.  I got home at around 1pm EST.  I unpacked my stuff (was visiting a friend for the night) and put the game in the console.  It had an install and a 3GB update.  By 1:44pm, I was playing it.  With Sunset Overdrive, I was playing it in less than five minutes after putting the disc in the drive.

By contrast, the PS4 installs the Assassin's Creed Unity disc, in its entirety, in less than two minutes. (Some GameSpot staff point out that, in fact, it isn't always as rapid as this). The Wii U, meanwhile, doesn't require game installation.

It is difficult to give an overall assessment of the Xbox One controller, such is the pad's inherent divisiveness. Microsoft has tweaked its winning formula to the extent that the pad has become an acquired taste that necessitates a road test for any would-be buyer. There was, however, one surprising conclusion that came from the GameSpot UK team's analysis: Everyone who held the Xbox One controller in their palms, even those who praised it, said they preferred the feel of the DualShock 4.

----Fair enough.  Opinions and all.

The Xbox One Interface is Challenging

Navigating the Xbox One is a bit like hearing an Aristocrats joke. Each turn and navigation is more unfathomably awful than the last, defying sacred taboos of user interface, to the extent that it genuinely becomes amusing.

Let's warm you up with the home page layout: A third of it is saved for sponsored content, and another third is dominated by a huge preview pane showing your singlemost recently used app, which is essentially a gargantuan, space-eating reminder of what you've just navigated away from. Clicking on this vast window is also how you return to the app, which is a strikingly inelegant replacement for, say, just pressing the Xbox button.

-----A third of it is whatever you just navigated away from.  If it's TV, you can still watch TV.  If it's a web video or music, it will continue to play.  Consider it a picture in a picture from what you're using.  You can just press "B" to return to that content instead of having to highlight the large window again.  

Each turn and navigation is more unfathomably awful than the last, defying sacred taboos of user interface, to the extent that it genuinely becomes amusing.

You might not believe this either, but trust us; currently, pressing the Xbox button on the home page does nothing. Yes, Microsoft could theoretically make the Xbox button resume your game, like how the PlayStation 4 does so swiftly, but what's the point in having a colossal preview pane if you can outright negate it with a simple thumb press? And sure, Microsoft could have made the Xbox button launch a mini-guide, as the Xbox 360 did so handily, but what's the point in putting tools in people's hands?

------Like I said, just press the "B" button to go back to your content.

And yet, if you double-tap the Xbox button on the home screen, you enter Snap Mode. Yes, Snap Mode is higher up the short-cut pecking order than the game or app you've chosen.

----Double tapping the Xbox button on ANY screen will enter "Snap Mode".  Even in the middle of the game.  It was an update that was praised a month or two ago.

Crammed within the remaining slither of home-page space is... another Snap Mode icon. It's apparently vital that you have more ways to access this feature, especially on incredibly limited dashboard real-estate.

------There are certain icons that are always on the home screen.  Snap (which was only accessible if you went to the home menu or if you had an Xbox, said "Xbox, Snap ____".  The others are  one showing whatever you played last (so you can go back instantly, if you use the browser mid game or watch a video or something), or the Disc in the Blu Ray drive in case you were watching a movie or CD or something.  The rest are recently used apps.

Then there's the games and apps icon. The Xbox One's library of media apps and games isn't automatically available on the home screen. I mean, why put them there, right in front of you? How about instead you enter the 'app' app (yes) to find the app you want?

------There are a TON of "apps".  The PS4 has the same issue.  Instead of going to view all of your apps, you can pick the ones you use most often (I think you can pin 12) and give them their own page.  Same as with a Smart Phone.  You want to see everything?  Then, just like with a Smart Phone, there is a place that you can go to to see them all.

As a bonus, the app drawer itself is chaos. Browsing it is akin to rummaging through a suitcase on vacation. The Achievements app is next to Skype, next to Friends, next to YouTube, next to Settings, next to Twitch. Xbox doesn't make a distinction between system-wide services and entertainment applications, and the result is as dumbfounding as it sounds.

------This, I'm not 100% sure of.  I THINK they're in the order you downloaded them, though.

The remaining tiny letterbox of home-page space is reserved for your four most recent games and apps. Sony launched the PS4 with a large strip of ten of these stretching across the centre of the homepage, and after taking feedback from users, expanded that to 15. Xbox One, by contrast, has no space to go beyond four. Bear in mind that even the most basic features, such as friends and achievements, are now designated apps that will also barge their way into this small space.

------Yes.  Whatever it was that you just used will pop into this area.  Not a bad thing, in my opinion.  If I used it last, I may want to use it again.

Adjacent to your four recent items is the disc icon, which displays media content currently populating the Xbox One's Blu-ray drive. Yet bizarrely, the game populating the disc icon (which, remember, is fixed in place) also appears in the recent icons. That's two windows of the same game, sitting next to each other, on severely limited home page space. It's the kind of UI oversight you might expect from Chinese bootlegs and hacked systems, and quite stunning to see it on the real thing.

-----Nitpicking at it's finest.  The home space is sooooo severely limited?  Then go one putton press to the left and choose from your customized page of pins.  Shouldn't have to press left or right on the D-Pad, you say?  That's the way you navigate the PS4's XMB, isn't it?  Why is it bad for one and great for the other?

Previous Xbox 360 dashboard layouts, from the blades right through to the end, would be a welcomed upgrade.

It is a Herculean endeavour in itself to complete a full list of the Xbox One's operating system problems. The store layouts are confusing, it's not clear how one switches between Snap Mode and the main picture (double-tap the Xbox button and follow the instructions, fyi), and keyboard typing hasn't moved on from standards set in 2005. The YouTube app's on-screen keyboard, by the way, is a mind-boggling single-file ABC-strip. The fastest time anyone in the office could type the word "the" was 4.3 seconds.

-----The Youtube app's keyboard is the same on the PS4 and the Wii U ,,,,,and PS3 and 360 (and, until recently, the PS4 didn't even have a Youtube App).  Also, the keyboard (Outside of Youtube) is almost identical to the PS4's except without the motion control options.  And when I bought inFamous: First Light, I couldn't even find the game on PS4 without actually typing in the name.  Even the Wii U's market is a confusing mess.  It's common accross all platforms and actually, in my opinion, all three consoles have taken a step back from the simplicity of 7th gen.

Some would argue that these problems can be overcome by pinning your apps to a dedicated space, situated just left of the home screen. It is true, to a point, that having your own hodgepodge of pinned apps eliminates the hassle of finding those ones in particular. But even with these handy shortcuts, navigating the system is a unenjoyable inevitability.

-----??? So, even if you customize the Xbox One exactly the way you want it to look and where all of your Apps are easily accessible based on your own personal preferences, it's still a problem?  Okay.

Elsewhere there's an extraordinary absence of on-screen directions too, which means the handy tricks found by pressing the 'options' button is never referenced, while modes of navigation are hardly ever mentioned. This, coupled with the OS's general lack of intuitiveness, means that pathways around the system are naturally forgotten. You'll recall seeing the installation queue before, somewhere, but can't quite remember how you got there.

I don't even know what any of this means.  You're queue is in....your queue.  If it's gone, it's because your download/install/update is complete and doesn't need to be in your queue anymore.

,,,

*edit*  No idea what the heck is going on.  My replies were underlined when I typed them.  Now, they're just mixed in with everything else.  I don't know how to fix it.