The Xbox One X touts itself as ‘the world’s most powerful console’.
It’s a big mission statement, and one you’d be forgiven for taking with a pinch of salt.
However, for the Xbox One X, it’s totally true: there can be no doubt it really is the world’s most powerful console.
The Xbox One X manages to reverse a trend that’s been true of this generation so far: Microsoft has outrun Sony.
At the launch of this generation, we saw the PS4 outperform the Xbox One in terms of technical achievement and sales, and now it looks like the mid-generational refresh has seen Microsoft catch up to the Japanese tech giant.
We had the chance to play with the Xbox One X at a Microsoft event in London recently, and we can confirm it does make games look incredible.
At the event we took Gears of War 4 for a spin on the machine and while this is an ageing game now (by games industry standards, anyway), the 4K boost did wonders for the assets.
Enemy models looked far better than in the base version of the game, and the environments seemed to ‘pop’ more, allowing you to appreciate the effort the developers but into the title.
Despite being shown in 4K, however, the game still didn’t look amazing.
It didn’t have the graphical impact of, say, Horizon: Zero Dawn on PS4 - it was still nice to look at, but for the most part, it felt upscaled… like a slightly better-looking version of Gears of War 4.
That may be because the game was developed before studios had access to the development kits for the Xbox One X properly, though.
Cut to our experience with Forza Motorsport 7, and you can see what the power of the Xbox One X can really do when a developer has been working with the kit for sometime.
Turn 10’s latest game really lives up to what Microsoft calls ‘uncompressed pixels’.
Other UHD formats you may have seen - UHD Blu-Rays, streaming services - they’re all going to suffer from compression somewhere.
Thanks to the way Forza 7 is read by the Xbox One X, however, you suffer very little direct compression.
And the result is probably one of the best things we’ve ever seen in 4K.
The game doesn’t just settle for looking good and funnelling you through predictable tracks - there’s a dynamic, real-time weather system embedded in there, too, and some of the cleanest lighting you’ll see in a racing game to boot.
The game’s performance outstrips that of Gran Turismo and Project Cars at every turn, and shows a very bright future for what the Xbox One X can achieve in the hands of studios that can work with Microsoft to really get the most out of the new machine.
We also got chance to play Rise of the Tomb Raider on the One X - and from this it’s clear to see how third-party developers intend to use the technology.
First thing to note is that the Xbox One X version sometimes seems to outperform even the top-end PC version of the game.
The second thing to note is that it outperforms even the PS4 Pro version - if that’s a statement of how key publishers like Square Enix will be treating their games versus Microsoft’s Sony competitor, it stands the Xbox manufacturer in very good stead indeed.
If you’re keen on upgrading to a 4K TV and want to get simply the best graphical performance out of a videogame you as you can this year, you’ve nowhere better to go than the Xbox One X.
Microsoft really isn’t trying to dupe you when it says the machine is the world’s ‘most powerful console’.
At this early stage at least, for first and third-party titles alike, it blows the competition out the water.
