Xbox One X & Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

First off, the original review was 2 stars, I'm changing this to one, purely because of the fact that it wasn't what's advertised, on top of the fact more people will see this. Now, I'm not sure what I should say here. I'm torn at the moment. I bet you're asking, why? I'll start from the beginning. Let's go back in time, a few months, around early June. I was in the market for a One X, Forza was relevant and hot within my group, and I needed an upgrade from my Xbox 360. This was an extremely odd phase for Microsoft, as almost no One X's could be found new from their site. I took a peek at Microsoft's pricing as well. It was considerably lower than comparable vendors. All right, fine. This is about the period I would be scouring the internet, high and low, as I didn't want a One S, as that was seemingly an Xbox One in color, white, which I see as boring, and tasteless. If that's your thing, go for it, but I'm not feeling it. ESPECIALLY with the "all-digital" variation. So one day, I gave up after searching for long. Hard throughout more trusted distributors (i.e., Target, Best Buy, Even Gamestop), I eventually settled on Amazon of all places. Of course, I knew something of a rarity, especially being discontinued, would lead to some 'loose ends' somewhere, boy, I was right on that. I ordered with blind faith, ultimately hoping for the best. Order received. Great! Now I've got a One X on the way, an abnormally long shipping estimate, so just like any kid in a candy store would do, I start digging through the internet trying to learn every single thing about this Console. I see many reviews, unboxings, impressions, and I'll be honest, It's got me in a very excited state. The shipping date changes. It comes a few days early. Great! However, the package requires a signature. Ok. I'll get home from work, and I'll play on my Xbox and get lost in the immersive gaming experience! Let's say that's not what happened... Fortunately, someone was at my place when the Xbox came in, so it was signed for, thank god. All right! I open the box, and I'm blown away! It's such a clean looking professional box. That's great! As the Console had been discontinued at this point, I felt like the luckiest guy in the world. I opened the box; however, from my seller, I could tell this was substantially different from the Microsoft experience, at least as far as I was concerned. I was missing My Xbox Live Gold, My Documentation, Everything! But I didn't know about this at the time. Little did I know as well. My warranty was already missing a majority of its lifespan. I open the box, I take extra care as not to damage anything, The Console seems to be in really nice physical condition, weighs a lot as expected, but something feels off, "Seattle -> You" badge seems really sloppy, I take it was likely refurbished with a Chinese case after some heavy use, or a very careless/'unknowing as to how to care to it' ownership. Not a problem. To me, It's just an Xbox that got lost in quality control, oh well. Well, I got everything plugged in. It started. However, I noticed something... odd... The startup '4K Chip' Scene was extremely laggy. I tested this on my 4K TV and my 1080p monitor. Same result. Odd. This detail wasn't a problem. On Reddit, others said this could occur after just a few days. I downloaded Forza Horizon 4. I had played FH4 on PC for a while. I bought this Xbox to use multiplayer as my PC was inoperable in that field. I have a decent computer, so I know how lovely the graphics are. After getting all of my content synced, I was able to play. Now, I get this was a 400 dollar console new, but this didn't look very good. Constant stuttering, like it, had been hit with a hammer a few times for sure. I wasn't sure what to expect, considering I was so new in this field, but with bold claims like "Xbox One X Enhanced," among others, I was expecting a little better. Marketing hoo-ha (Read till the end, I'm not nitpicking) as far as I'm concerned. Now, This is all right. I bought Xbox Live Gold as it was an excellent deal at the time. Now, I started downloading other things and testing features. My controller was nice. I liked the way it felt for sure. That's one of the nice parts about the One X I received. I also read that there was a 4K Blu-Ray Player on board, so that's pretty awesome. I tried it out with a generic DVD. It was a brand new movie. I put the disc in. I felt a little resistance at first, oh well. It went in; the movie looked nice, what a nice feature! I pulled the disc out to put it away, well, unfortunately, It's scratched. Not sure if it was the quality of the CD or what, live and learn is what they say. As I experimented, I realized I didn't have a good home for this Xbox, It didn't work as advertised, and I let it stand for a while. I just had zero urge to play. I was ultimately depressed. I spent this much money on a used piece of junk. I put it in the box and left it in the corner for a while. Now, This is one of the EXTREMELY RARE stories that has both sides of the story. Shortly after, I was browsing Microsoft again for one of these, even though I thought it was going to be the same result. *Add to Cart* Are you telling me, I can buy a new one of these... from Microsoft? I dropped everything I was doing and bought it on the spot for 38 dollars less than the one from Direct Distributor. Great! The best part? One. Day. Delivery. That was AMAZING to have it overnighted for 15 dollars shipping. You can tell I was likely pretty excited. I unboxed it, and It had all the documentation I wanted, plus extra! Now, this Console was a late 2017 model, which I've heard are pretty prone to overheating. I bought a vertical stand for it, similar to the one from Project Scorpio. It gives the Console enhanced airflow. At this point, from my old Console to this, with a cooked graphics card on the original, I take extra precautions every time I use this one. It has it's own corner, and it gets moved to the center of the desk every time it has the lovely time of being used. Now, This one has ZERO lag on startup. It was AMAZING! I got Forza installed, it runs almost perfectly, not PC level, but It's nice. I have about 50 hours into it now. I play it less these days because of time restraints; however, It was night and day difference. Skyrim runs awesome, of course. The Blu-Ray is even better (and doesn't bite). The controller was revision #1, so not the same. However, a controller is much easier to replace than a whole unit, especially discontinued. I still believe I got an Xbox One X from the last batch Microsoft will ever sell. On top of this, My warranty was in full, and I've got my whole Console again. The wifi is smooth, the browsing is great, and this thing is my queen, practically. What should you take from this? Well, from the time of writing this, The Xbox Series S is 300 and will be up for preorder seven days from now, available right in time for the holidays. SO MUCH POWER for so little money, The Series X costs less than a wild card Xbox One X on here. Now, Here's The Verdict. Seller: Being Direct Distributor, They had some EXTREMELY high ratings, which was lovely; however, I believe that this was an incredibly irresponsible and wrong decision on their end to send a console labeled NEW as a poor refurb. However, Even though I missed the return date, on top of the fact they say you're not allowed to return game consoles, they gave me all my money back after being in limbo for a few days. Incredible experience overall, so I hate them and love them at the same time. The Console: I'm saying this from the perspective of my NEW One X from Microsoft. It's an AMAZING console, a significant upgrade as far as the 360 goes. It's so much different than my, so quiet, so powerful, and a dream to use. Right Now: Don't buy this Console, anywhere. It's far too expensive, it's dated hardware, and it offers an older design that in the 2017's is prone to overheating failure, don't bring me back to that issues on the 360. No good. However, I would go for the Series S, 300 dollars for Next-gen stuff? Or 12 Teraflops on the Series X for 63 dollars less than "New" asking on here right now? No thanks. Save yourself the money, and buy something even better. Thanks For Reading. Name: Jake O'Malley Seller: Direct Distributor