The Oholiab clan is getting close to purchasing a couple Xbones (I should have never promised to match the funds my kids contributed...), and we are looking at some options. Found this on Craigslist, and would appreciate input from the collective mind.

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/vgm/5282638679.html

I'm thinking that since this includes Vanilla Destiny, we can download TDB and HoW from the Xbox Store, then purchase TTK. Is that accurate?

Thank you!

ps: we fully intend to keep using our 360s to play with our good friends we have there!

its a solid price, and for a good cause (according to seller).

There is a leaked ad for a $299 XBone that includes an extra controller, which is a great price.

If you want the Kinect for some reason, you should definitely hop on that first deal, especially if it's in excellent condition.

I don't have one now, and I wonder about having two Kinects in the same room.

Ordinarily, I refuse to answer this question, since no one can tell you whether you want a Kinect. It just depends whether you'll use it or not.

However, since you mentioned having two in the same room, I feel like that probably wouldn't work well. You might be ok with body tracking in actual games, since it's able to keep track of which people are holding controllers, and just interact with them. But the voice commands would probably get picked up by both consoles.

Supposedly the voice recognition is better in the new Kinect. It's awful on the 360 so I keep it unplugged unless we are playing a Kinect game. I hear it's not actually better in the new one though.

Supposedly the voice recognition is better in the new Kinect. It's awful on the 360 so I keep it unplugged unless we are playing a Kinect game. I hear it's not actually better in the new one though.

I don't know if it's because it's a small room or what, but my One Kinect could not pick up my commands at all--close, far away...it even got to the point where I was literally holding the unit right in front of my face like a cell phone and speaking loudly into it, and absolutely nothing. I put it in a cardboard box and it's been collecting dust ever since.

That's odd, because that doesn't fit my experience at all. I can count the number of times it hasn't correctly recognized my voice on one hand, and I use it extensively. /:

Not that it really matters, but it makes me sad that folks have experiences like yours, because mine has been the total opposite it, and I absolutely love it. I think Kinect gets a bad rep from a lot of people (deservedly so in your case), but I feel like most of those people only have experience with the 360 Kinect (or none at all). I used to be one of them. When they announced mandatory Kinect for the One, I was frustrated because it sounded stupid and I didn't want it and didn't plan to use it. I was so totally wrong.

I appreciate the input!

Games that use Kinect don't usually appeal to me, so I wouldn't get one unless it was crucial to the Xbone interface. Sounds like that's not the case.

Ordinarily, I refuse to answer this question, since no one can tell you whether you want a Kinect. It just depends whether you'll use it or not.

Yep. That's hard to judge. I can tell you that I love mine and use it all the time. Here's my typical use:

"Xbox, on" sounds like it's totally stupid. How hard is it to hold a button on the controller? Well, I'll tell you: I can't remember the last time I turned my Xbox on without the voice command. It's really handy to say "Xbox, on" as you walk by the thing when you know you're going to play it in a minute, but you're getting a sandwich or putting something in the garbage or whatever.

All the simple voice commands are what really make it useful. Xbox, snap Party. Xbox, record that. Etc, etc. Granted, it sounds like with the redesigned UI coming next month (which is miles better than the old one, judging from my time with it!) will allow voice commands with a headset without a Kinect, so its major selling point for me will go away. I'm not sure I've ever used it my Kinect other than voice commands . . .

However, since you mentioned having two in the same room, I feel like that probably wouldn't work well. You might be ok with body tracking in actual games, since it's able to keep track of which people are holding controllers, and just interact with them. But the voice commands would probably get picked up by both consoles.

Yeah, I don't think that would work well. ):

I surprisingly love my mine. The voice commands are a huge help even though I'm 99% sure my GF thinks I'm crazy when I talk to my xbox.

Games that use Kinect don't usually appeal to me, so I wouldn't get one unless it was crucial to the Xbone interface. Sounds like that's not the case.

The current UI really sucks, and voice commands went a long way towards making it bearable.

The new UI launching next month (which has been slowly rolling out to select users for testing) is much, much, much better. I'm not sure what your experience with the One is, but things like Party and Friends were previously awful. It would take upwards of fifteen seconds to open the Party or Friends app sometimes, but it's now more similar to the way the 360 handles it, where those things are always available from a Guide that pops up with a double tap of the Xbox button.

From what little you've said about it, I'd say you probably wouldn't be served very well with Kinect, so I wouldn't worry about it in your case, especially if Kinect games don't appeal to you.

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I generally have to repeat myself several times before the kinect responds, sometimes I just give up. Naturally, it doesn't get used very often since our success rate is so low. I think our 360 kinect was better. Our Amazon Echo on the other hand is amazing at voice recognition.

Maybe the Kinect needs to be calibrated, although I did that when first setting it up...

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It would take upwards of fifteen seconds to open the Party or Friends app sometimes

This problem gets significantly better when running games from an external hard drive. Apparently the built-in drive is a huge IO bottleneck, and any time the game's using it, system apps load super slow. One your games are running off of a different drive that problem goes away. I mean, there's still a bit of lag, but nowhere near as bad.

Games that use Kinect don't usually appeal to me, so I wouldn't get one unless it was crucial to the Xbone interface. Sounds like that's not the case.

The current UI really sucks, and voice commands went a long way towards making it bearable.

The new UI is sadly not much better. In some ways it's actually worse, in fact, because they removed the ability to make clips longer than 30 seconds (to name one issue).

The new UI launching next month (which has been slowly rolling out to select users for testing) is much, much, much better. I'm not sure what your experience with the One is, but things like Party and Friends were previously awful. It would take upwards of fifteen seconds to open the Party or Friends app sometimes, but it's now more similar to the way the 360 handles it, where those things are always available from a Guide that pops up with a double tap of the Xbox button.

Not sure if it's just me, but the new UI is ridiculously slow. There is upwards of a three-second delay between input and response, and the Party system only works some of the times (I'll often be in the party, but I can't hear anyone). Then again, it is a beta test, but with launch only being weeks away...

From what little you've said about it, I'd say you probably wouldn't be served very well with Kinect, so I wouldn't worry about it in your case, especially if Kinect games don't appeal to you.

The new UI was specifically designed to work without Kinect, and it is much better in terms of app accessibility, if nothing else.

This problem gets significantly better when running games from an external hard drive. Apparently the built-in drive is a huge IO bottleneck, and any time the game's using it, system apps load super slow. One your games are running off of a different drive that problem goes away. I mean, there's still a bit of lag, but nowhere near as bad.

I'll be trying that soon. Halo 5 took up the last good chunk of my hard drive space, so I'll have to start using my external.

The new Xbox One dashboard seems to fix the issue even without that, though. It's more 360-like. You double tap the home button and a menu slides in from the left side that has Friends, Messages, Party, Notifications, and Settings, and they all open instantly. It's really slick, and it works extremely well in my experiences with it. It's how it always should have been.

The new UI is sadly not much better. In some ways it's actually worse, in fact, because they removed the ability to make clips longer than 30 seconds (to name one issue).

I haven't tried that, so I can't comment there.

Not sure if it's just me, but the new UI is ridiculously slow. There is upwards of a three-second delay between input and response, and the Party system only works some of the times (I'll often be in the party, but I can't hear anyone). Then again, it is a beta test, but with launch only being weeks away...

I can't recall experiencing anything like that. Everything works basically instantly in my experience, in terms of opening the Friends list and Party chat. I've actually had remarkably less issues with being able to start or join parties. The only real issue I've encountered was Forza 6 not launching at all yesterday. I ended up having to reboot.

The Xbone without the kinect is simply not an Xbone as far as I'm concerned. The new Kinect's voice recognition is fantastic and incredibly useful. I love it!

Granted, if you aren't going to watch TV or netflix or blue rays with your xbone, you won't be using the kinect in the same way that we do in my house, so ymmv.

Never used the gestures.