Gaming question from a non-gamer: Xbox One S

[mrbigstuff]

the kids have an Xbox 360, which I bought because it didn't require an internet connection. as I was told, I don't know these things. now, they are bored with the 360 and want a One S, but I have read conflicting things about the necessity of connections. all they really want to do is play games. I don't want them getting into Live with chatting and all that BS. can you just stick a game in the old-fashioned way, or do you have to d/l something every time you get a new game? any help appreciated.

[space-time]

Good question, we have one and we have 2 games on optical disk but we always had it connected to Ethernet. My guess is that the basic game still works without internet.

But the real question is if you can set it up without internet connection.

[gabester]

I'm pretty sure there's no way to get around the internet connection requirement. You don't need Live or Gold or any monthly-fee add-on. Some games require separate accounts set up as well...

The presumption on the XBox One console generation is that the internet would generally be available. It does NOT need to be always connected - many games can play offline but will need to periodically validate that they are still properly licensed to the user, even if you bought a disc you're still only getting a license to play for as long as the game provider hosts any services that game depends on. Not all games use networked services, although most will at the very least pull down updates from the internet.

I've had a One S for almost 2 years now. Very happy with it in general, although it gets fairly light use on MineCraft and the occasional other random game (a couple sports, and star wars battlefront II - Electronic Arts games tend to be the worst as far as having a separate account registered to play the game.)

[Zoidberg]

I had an Xbox One some years ago and sold it to someone on the forum; after having that one for a year, I never played it and always went back to the 360. (The only game I played was HALO: The Master Chief Collection; there were no games available for the Xbox One S that first year that I wanted.)

Flash forward; I bought an Xbox One S back in June via a good NewEgg deal on eBay ($160 for the 1TB version w/optical drive). Primary reason I jumped back on board was a lot of good things I heard about the Xbox One S was that MS had opened the gate to playing a lot of classic games (both XBox and XBox 360).

I confirmed this within the first few days of having it; I took several of the games I had for the original XBox and the 360 (i.e., not Xbox One S games) & have played them on the Xbox One S; usually, you put in the Disc, it will tell you an updater is needed to play it on the Xbox One S, and then you play. (An aside: after I got things set up, I logged into my account and was able to download the full HALO: Master Chief game as it had me noted as owning the game (b'c of my previous Xbox One purchase).

So the internet connection is kind of a necessity for updates and etc. You can always turn the connection off or on to it, or (depending on where it is) just hook it up via Ethernet (and disallow WiFi connectivity) to do updaters.

There's also parental controls, as I recall, for limiting chat & etc., but keep in mind that games involving battle royale setups will require internet connectivity. FWIW, I've played console games for years, including online/connected, that had live/chat options and have never, not once, used that feature.

And as an aside, and to echo gabester; EA sucks rocks. I don't know how you can make a STAR WARS game so un-fun, but they did it. BATTLEFRONT and BATTLEFRONT II (the newer offerings for Xbox One S) are the most beautiful video games I've seen, and they're overwrought and unfun. I picked up both the *original* BATTLEFRONT games from the 00's from the XBox Store (back during a sale) for $4.99 each and have been playing those again. *Those* are fun.

[mrbigstuff]

thanks Zoid and gabester. I'm still all ears if anyone has further comment.