I was lucky to get an Xbox Series X — so why am I not playing it?

(Image credit: Phil Barker/Futurity Publishing via Getty Images)

After spending several months telling myself I wasn't going to buy an Xbox Series X, and watching other people scramble to pick up next-gen consoles, I caved and bought an Xbox Series X. That was a few weeks ago and recently I'thou starting to wonder whether that was such a good idea.

I'm not going to prevarication: the conclusion to buy an Xbox Series 10 was 100 percent an impulse purchase, and not the issue of spending weeks trying to rails downwards a console that didn't come from a scalper. UK retailer Argos got some stock and in typical side by side-gen fashion it sold out almost immediately. Except for one store, most 30 minutes away past auto, which miraculously still had some available.

Where to buy Xbox Serial 10: All the latest stock updates
Xbox Serial X vs Xbox Series S: Which console is best?
Plus: You need both the PS5 and Xbox Serial X — here's why

A few days and twoscore miles of driving after, I was rearranging the pinnacle of my Tv set unit of measurement to adjust the overgrown brick that is the Xbox Series 10. Hooray! Right? Maybe not, because in the weeks since, I've done near cypher with it.

It'southward been almost everything simply a games console

In the weeks since I hooked upward my new Xbox, I've done very little actual gaming on it. Which is weird when you consider how many games can play on a next-gen Xbox. In that location'southward 20 years worth of stuff to savour, and all I seem to be using information technology for is playing 4K Blu-rays. When I'm non trying to sync my one-time save files with the cloud, that is.

The crazy thing is I already had an Xbox One S, and that was perfectly capable of playing 4K discs. Maybe it wasn't quite the same quality every bit a dedicated 4K machine, but it played them and only took up about half the space of the Series Ten in the process.

The thing that gets to me the about is I rarely have fourth dimension for games anymore. Certainly not on the Telly, and that's why I like the Nintendo Switch so much. It lets me option upwardly a game whenever I like, wherever I may be.

I can stream the Xbox Series X to my phone, and very hands, but it's not quite the same. I nevertheless feel like I should exist sitting on the burrow, in front of the Television receiver with a controller in my hands. Especially since a lot of the games I take are big, expansive games that benefit from having a much larger view of the world.

Those games likewise seem to require massive amounts of fourth dimension and endeavor to stay on meridian of, I discovered this kickoff hand when loading up my Fallout 4 salvage, and realized I hadn't played the game for four years and had no idea what was going on. I was also shocked to find Elderberry Maxson was still live, even though I'm pretty sure I killed him to obtain that sweetness coat he wears. Plus, I distinctly remember completing the game and destroying the Institute. But it's somehow notwithstanding there.

Information technology was nice to run around and check out the Commonwealth in 60fps. But the fact I'm an adult with a busy adult schedule that doesn't include much time for games still one of those things that makes me wonder why I bothered picking upward the Series X

The lack of exclusives doesn't aid

Console exclusives are unremarkably quite rare this early in a new generation, and it doesn't affair whether you're the proud owner of a PS5 or an Xbox Series X. We're less than a twelvemonth into the new cycle, and all the platform exclusives too happen to be available on the older consoles.

The fact I have an Xbox Series X now doesn't actually open up upwardly any new gaming opportunities for me. Because every game I could become out and buy would accept worked on my older panel. It'southward a pretty incredible matter when y'all think about it, because the aforementioned disc is able to work beyond two different generations of hardware

That sort of frontwards compatibility hasn't really been done before, and even in the celebrity days of the PS2 it was incommunicable to pop a PS3 game into a PS2 and expect information technology to work. Even the PS5 sells carve up discs for its exclusives, like Spider-Man: Miles Morales. It's an impressive display of technology, and a consumer friendly practice that yous never would have expected from a company like Microsoft even ten years ago.

Of grade. the downside is that I could easily pick up a copy of something similar Crash Bandicoot four, and proceed to play it on my Xbox One. The merely major difference is that the Xbox Series 10 is able to run information technology at 4K 60fps. That'due south a big step up from the original Xbox One and Xbox One S that I still take lying effectually, only it's not like I'd exist missing out on a lot.

The same goes for Game Laissez passer, since all those titles are multi-generational. The Serial 10 may look and play those games better, but it'due south non like I wouldn't take been able to play them without it.

It definitely doesn't help that Microsoft seems far more committed to supporting the Xbox Ane into the future. It's great that gamers don't experience the force per unit area to upgrade if they don't really desire to. But at the same time it too decreases the value of the new console. Peradventure that'due south i of the reasons why the Xbox Series 10 and Xbox Series Due south take been a petty bit easier to find than the PS5.

Despite that, I have no regrets

But when I start 2d-guessing my conclusion too much I'm reminded by one thing: Simply because I haven't been playing the console yet doesn't mean I never volition. At that place will come up a fourth dimension where I badly desire a next-gen console, and now I'chiliad prepared. As the old saying goes, it'due south better to have something and not demand information technology, than need it and not have information technology.

Then again, whoever coined that saying probably meant emergency supplies or something of that ilk. Not $499 games consoles. But, hey, I won't be playing Halo Infinite in anything less than 4K, which is something to look forward to. But as long every bit Microsoft doesn't brand me seriously regret jumping in early past releasing a express edition panel design that looks a lot ameliorate than the current matt-black fridge.

Plus, the Series X has already taught me things I never knew most my TV. Like the fact that Samsung TVs from that era (the far off days of 2016) don't have HDR turned on by default. I only establish that out because the Xbox kept claiming I wasn't using an HDR10-uniform display.

It turns out you have to deep dive into the settings and turn HDR on for each individual HDMI port. And even and then information technology'south non actually labelled as annihilation even tangibly related to HDR. Samsung expected you to just know, or at least that someone on a forum somewhere would point you in the correct direction. Then that's certainly a win for Microsoft, and some other thing I tin can hold confronting Samsung. That win may not be worth $500 on its ain, merely information technology'south a win nonetheless.

I may wonder why I spent so much money on a shiny new panel that I've barely touched sometimes, just I wouldn't become so far as to say I accept any serious buyer's remorse. I just have to manage my time better, and observe some games that make me a piffling more eager to pick upwards that controller.

These are the best Game Pass games you can play right now

Tom is the Tom'southward Guide's Automotive Editor, which ways he tin can usually exist found knee deep in stats the latest and best electric cars, or checking out some sort of driving gadget. It's long way from his days every bit editor of Gizmodo UK, when pretty much everything was on the tabular array. He'southward usually found trying to clasp another giant Lego set onto the shelf, draining very large cups of coffee, or complaining that Ikea won't let him buy the stuff he really needs online.