XBOX One $500? Indefensible.

For the record, I'm an XBOX guy and have been since 2004. And although the XBOX 360 is far from perfect (red ring of death anyone?), I've always considered it better than the Playstation 3.

But the new XBOX One always has to be connected to the Internet. The Kinect camera is always on, knows when you're in the room and is connecting itself back to a company that the NSA is fond of data mining. It's full of television/living room functionality that gamers never asked for and "regular" people don't understand.

And it's $100 more than the Playstation 4. How can I tell anyone with a straight face that they should go with XBOX over Playstation?

Oh yeah. And there's this.

The Place to Start for Info on the XBOX One

Microsoft announced the new XBOX One last week, and while most of the information centered around the non-gaming aspects of the console there was still a lot of information for video gamers. Below are the two best links I've found to get all of the information that has been released so far, as well as a link outlining some of the many worries video gamers have about the new console.

I'm not going to get too worked up yet, as I suspect most of the answers with how the XBOX One relates to video games will be answered at their presentation at E3 next month. But then again, this is Microsoft we're talking about.

XBOX One Revealed | Wired.com

Microsoft Xbox One: everything you need to know | TheVerge.com

5 Features of the New Xbox That Are About to Ruin Everything | Cracked.com

Video Game Controllers Through the Years

Extreme Tech has a great rundown of historic video game controllers and why each was an important step in the evolution of gaming. It's most interesting to me to see that the controllers for the new Playstation 4 and XBOX One are just slight variations of their predecessors, a fact I'm very happy about.

Shoulder buttons of giants: The evolution of controllers leading up to the PS4 and the Xbox One | ExtremeTech.com