UPDATE: For the authoritative take on Microsoft’s new flagship console, Digital Foundry’s full Xbox Series X review is now live.
I tell you what looks great on the Series X: Geometry Wars. Specifically Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, but they’re all bangers, aren’t they? Chuck that bad boy up on a giant, fancy screen with some giant, fancy headphones and you’re away. Other things that look great, while we’re at it: Arkham Knight, and its distinctly sodden, gothic-neon-deco take on Gotham; Sunset Overdrive’s eye-blistering orange; Dirt 5’s dirt; Halo 5’s silly lasers; and Gears 5, which despite best efforts to cram you into the traditionally rubbly, grey-brown interiors does still expand into some mega-vivid scenery – and plays, on a 120Hz screen, like hot butter in the pan.
I have no idea what enhancements, if any, these games have had. That is Digital Foundry’s domain, and I daren’t go near it. I think most of them are running at a higher frame rate than they would be on current-gen consoles, most of them benefit from HDR, by the Series X’s automatic magic or human craft, and all of them are displaying somewhere on the scale between 1080p and 4K, wherein me and my mortal eyes begin to lose track. But honestly, I haven’t looked it up – and honestly, I am not going to bother, because for me that is besides the point. The point is I actually played them all for the very first time this week – because early look at Dirt aside, they’re all on Game Pass – and that all of them look, play, and simply feel better here than they have anywhere else so far.
Dirt 5 Xbox Series X Hands-On! 4K60 + 120Hz Modes Tested Watch on YouTube
This, you soon realise with the Series X, is also more or less the entirety of Microsoft’s pitch.
That’s not a particularly new idea – we’ve all heard about how Microsoft’s vision of next gen is really about Game Pass, and how its jumbo punt on Bethesda is really about Game Pass, and how Game Pass is really about Game Pass, and all that. What feels new to me is how much the Series X as a piece of hardware aligns itself with that vision, too. Maybe it’s because there’s quite literally nothing exclusively new to play on it, but my experience with the console over the last few days, above all, has felt like an experience of Game Pass’ potential – not just to be a nice bargain or player-friendly add-on, but to genuinely change how we think about games.