Had a New Xbox for Christmas? Hints and tips for new Series owners

You unwrapped the packaging and saw this awesome monolith within. Like 2001: A Space Odyssey, you and your family danced around it, screeching to high heaven. No? Just at mine then? Still – you got that Xbox you wanted, and that’s pretty cool too.

Maybe you got the black tower-like Series X, or maybe you received the adorable Series S. Either way, you got it set up (you used the mobile app to do your settings while you waited for installs, right?). Now you’re wondering where you go from here. That’s where we come in.

Gamepass, Gamepass, Gamepass

Have you heard about our lord and saviour, Gamepass? Chances are that yes, yes you have. Why? Because it’s the best deal in gaming, and everybody is singing its praises.

Now it might be that it’s not for you, and that’s fine. but the service is actually a great way to boost your game collection. That’s especially true if this is the first time you’ve had an Xbox for a while.

And the good news is, you still have the ability to get it unbelievably cheaply by converting Xbox Live Gold into Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Simply buy up to three years of Gold and then convert it for $1 – jobs a good’n.

For a full guide on how to do this, visit Microsoft’s own page on the conversion process.

A dozen or so games are added each month, so there’s always a constant stream of new content to keep you going. Check it out – as a new Xbox owner, I’m pretty sure it’s the law.

Quick Resume Will Change the Way You Play

Quick Resume is a nice little feature that on paper sounds mildly useful. In real life, it’s a gamechanger.

Lucky for you newcomers, us early adopters have been beta testing it for you, and all the little issues present at launch have been fixed.

Effectively, what Quick Resume allows you to do is swap between three or more games, depending on whether they’re Series X native or not, in about five seconds a pop. Exactly where you left off when you stopped playing. No loading, no splash screens, no menus – just exactly where you stopped playing earlier.

Practically, this allows you to play multiple titles at once. That’s not the beauty of it though. If you live in a household with multiple gamers, suddenly turning off a game isn’t an invitation for someone to come and turn it off. Save points no longer dictate when you can and can’t turn it off. Games no longer wear out their welcome, because you’re not forced to play them for a second longer than you have to.

There are other advantages – like skipping around to multiplayer games when your friends login. It takes some use to readjust your brain for the new feature, but it’s worth it.

Auto-HDR and Backwards Compatibility

You’ve played Gears Tactics, Ori at 120fps and you’ve scored big on some of those cross-gen third party titles that look shiny and new. What now?

Well, Xbox makes some of the best games ever even better. Thanks to Auto-HDR and various other backward compatibility wizardry, your old games not only load faster, but they look much better as well.

That goes for a lot of your old discs, everything on the store and everything on Gamepass too.

Red Dead Redemption is a remaster on Xbox. It runs at 4k, has better textures and, now, auto-HDR and faster loading. Final Fantasy XIII can be lumped into that category as well.

There are hundreds of games that are an entirely new experience on the Series consoles, especially if you have the extra horsepower of the Series X.

Hints and Tips

A few non-linked hints and tips to make your life easier going forward.

• You have an awful lot of control over the guide and home screen – both aesthetically and practically. Have a play in the settings and see what you can come up with.
• Xbox One controllers work perfectly with the Series X, so feel free to connect them up. This can make for a nice alternative to having to buy multiple new controllers.
• You will be missing out on the capture button though. Pictures and video are automatically uploaded to Xbox Live, where you can access them via your phone. This is lowkey the feature that surprised me the most – it’s incredibly useful if you plan to share anything at all.
• Buy some decent batteries. You can muck about with Plug and Play kits, or you can buy a half decent set of Eneloop AAs for next to nothing. The latter will get you up to 30 hours of playtime.
• If your first thought was to buy a storage expansion – hold off. They’re still pricey, and both boxes hold more than you might think. Granted, power users who have to have everything installed might need to buy a memory card, but I’ve had the Series X for over a month and it’s not even close to full. Clever memory management can save you hundreds of dollars, kids!

Xbox Series X and S Newbies Guide – Conclusion

Both the Xbox Series X and S consoles are incredible, and they’re already proving their worth. Quick Resume and the faster loading alone make it a huge improvement over the last generation, and it certainly doesn’t stop there.

If you’ve been lucky enough to get a Series console in your stocking this morning, you’ve got a lot to look forward to.

Have a very merry Christmas – and happy gaming.