The Xbox One 1TB Console 3 Games Holiday Bundle is one of many bundles being offered by Microsoft for the tail end of 2015. Along with the system, the product comes with three acclaimed software products. So will the bundle be worth the price of admission? Before you make up your mind, let’s examine a few potential deciding factors.
Pricing
The Xbox One 1TB Console 3 Games Holiday Bundle is priced a little bit higher when compared to most of the current Xbox One bundles on the market. With that said, it does come with a bigger hard drive as well as three bundled games. You can check out the price tag for the holiday bundle with this link on Amazon.
Hardware
In terms of aesthetics, the Xbox One being bundle looks the same as the standard black system. It does come equipped with a 1TB HDD, which doubles the size of the 500 GB hard drives that came with the original units.
Another notable inclusion is the revised Xbox One Wireless Controller, which now natively supports gaming headsets without the need of an adapter along with being able to update wirelessly.
Gears of War: Ultimate Edition
One of the games being included in the bundle is a physical copy of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition. The remastered port features enhanced assets, native 1080p support, dedicated severs for multiplayer along with five extra missions that were previously exclusive to the PC version of the original game.
Furthermore, there is also a promotion going on where you can download all four Xbox 360 versions of the franchise (the original Gears of War as well as Gears of War 2, Gears of War 3 and Gears of War Judgment) for free as long as you buy and play Gears of War: Ultimate Edition by the end of 2015.
To recap, you will get both the original Xbox 360 version and the ultimate edition of the very first game in the series as well as Gears of War 2, Gears of War 3 and Gears of War Judgment in the Xbox One 1TB Console 3 Games Holiday Bundle.
Rare Replay
The other major physical title in the bundle is Rare Replay, a compilation of games that were developed by one of the most well-respected studios in the industry. The collection includes the Blast Corps, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, Jet Force Gemini, Killer Instinct Gold, Perfect Dark, Kameo: Elements of Power in addition to the Banjo-Kazooie, Battletoads and Viva Piñata franchises. The only notable absences were GoldenEye 007 and Donkey Kong Country due to licensing issues. You can check out the complete list of title below:
- Jetpac
- Atic Atac
- Lunar Jetman
- Sabre Wulf
- Underwurlde
- Knight Lore
- Gunfright
- Slalom
- R.C. Pro-Am
- Battletoads
- Cobra Triangle
- Snake Rattle N Roll
- Digger T. Rock
- Solar Jetman
- R.C. Pro-Am II
- Battletoads Arcade
- Killer Instinct Gold
- Blast Corps
- Banjo-Kazooie
- Jet Force Gemini
- Perfect Dark
- Banjo-Tooie
- Conker’s Bad Fur Day
- Grabbed by the Ghoulies
- Perfect Dark Zero
- Kameo: Elements of Power
- Viva Piñata
- Jetpac Refuelled
- Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
- Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise
Rare also added some new features to most of these games, such as save states cheats and being able to rewind several seconds. Along with multiple behind-the-scene videos in addition to a slick presentation, Rare Replay is a great love letter to fans of the studio.
Ori and the Blind Forest
Last but not least is the critically-acclaimed Ori and the Blind Forest, which is included in the bundle as a digital download. The beautiful-looking 2D game offers it own unique take on the Metroidvania genre as players get to explore an engrossing and interconnected world as a guardian spirit. By buying the bundle, you will be getting one of the best games on the system with Ori and the Blind Forest.
Recap
The Xbox One 1TB Console 3 Games Holiday Bundle offers a great value. In addition to the hardware upgrades, it also comes with 33 games (plus four more titles if you take advantage of the Gears of War: Ultimate Edition promotion before the end of this year). If you are interested, you can preorder the system bundle with this link on Amazon.
With that said, only one of the games (Ori and the Blind Forest) have been developed specifically for the Xbox One as the rest of the aforementioned titles are either remastered releases or emulated games. Not to mention that Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, Rare Replay as well as Ori and the Blind Forest can be bought separately at cheap prices.
So you can still get a great value if you opt for one of the other bundles (such as the Fallout 4 and Rise of the Tomb Raider bundles) along with any, or all three, of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, Rare Replay and Ori and the Blind Forest.
The Xbox One 1TB Holiday Bundle will be released on the 27th of October