“Meet the pinnacle of Microsoft’s gaming efforts in our Xbox Series X review. Microsoft's Xbox Series X is the ultimate Xbox, simply because it's the best console on which to play Xbox games new and old.
It's still far from easy to buy but is well worth the effort. Having been out for more than a year now, the Xbox Series X has a better roster of games for lucky owners to try out, including a handful of new titles as well as enhanced versions of some of the best Xbox One games. People expecting a new console generation to blow their minds from the previous one might be a bit disappointed, as the graphics leap from the Xbox One X to Series X isn't mind-blowing. But it does means a lot of games that may have chugged on older hardware will run much more smoothly and at 4K resolution. The Xbox Series X has been out for nearly two years, yet if you're expecting a price drop then I have some bad news: the console is still $499 in the U.S. and £449 in the U.K. and AU$749 AU in Australia. You'll be disappointed if you were expecting a big user interface change with the Xbox Series X, as its UI is pretty much identical to that of the Xbox One. That’s not a bad thing, as that UI was pretty comprehensive, with a whole suite of options from managing games and apps, to transfer data between drives, to finely calibrating HDR displays and audio kit. Speaking of Xbox Game Pass, a lot of the Series X’s UI is geared around highlighting what’s new on the subscription service, which is pretty handy if you’re after a new game to play. This Xbox Game pass focus, plus the overall tile menu format can make it a little fussy, and occasionally tricky, to find what you’re looking for, unlike the very clean PS4 interface. But anyone familiar with the Xbox One UI will be completely at home on the Series X. It further stands to highlight how the Series X is less of a next-gen console, and is instead the flagship for an Xbox ecosystem. One of the best new UI features is Quick Resume. In a nutshell, this allows you to have multiple games loaded up at the same time, and lets you jump out of the action in one title, then start another game, then jump back into the first game exactly where you left off, almost as if you’d simply paused. The Xbox Series X didn't launch with a vast amount of games, but it now has an enviable library of titles that are more next-generation than they are cross-platform. Highlights include Forza Horizon 5, Halo Infinite and Elden Ring, with a slew of oddball games like The Ascent and Chorus, to take advantage of the console's hardware. Even Assassin's Creed Valhalla, a proper cross-gen game, benefits massively from running on the Xbox Series X.”
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