A console Christmas in September?

Up until this year, my virtual driving on a console consisted of playing Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec and 4 on an old PlayStation 2. Although there were a few other games, those were the two that got the most amount of time out of me.

Now, not to say I am an old and cheap gaming dinosaur that's behind the times, we did get a Nintendo Wii U for my son two Christmas' ago. One of the titles that was purchased for it was Need for Speed Most Wanted. I did play it, but after having finished the PC version some time before, the console port just didn't bring anything new to the experience, other than the sporadic, split-screen multiplayer games with family and friends.

With spending less and less time on the PlayStation, it started to gather a lot of dust. Time to let it go. We boxed it and the accumulated library of out-of-date games up and donated it to a local charity store. The Wii U is still new enough to get played, but mostly for non-driving games.

My wife, bless her heart, was thinking about getting the family a new gaming console, with more choices for a future expanded library than what the Wii U has to offer. My son has been wanting an Xbox for some time now and with the release of the One, it has grown almost to a fever pitch. The plan was for it to be a Christmas gift that would sit in our bedroom closet until then. She consulted with me which bundled version to purchase, pretty easy guess what my answer was....

However, we have discovered recently that home delivery for online purchases have been more miss than a hit with broken boxes and damaged items. My wife, out of fears that this latest acquisition might have suffered a similar fate and opening it during the Holiday Season might bring about difficulties for an exchange or refund, asked if we should do it a little earlier than planned. I feigned a reluctant yes.

Now, after having just finished the single player portion of Forza 6 Apex on PC, I wanted to experience more of what the game had to offer, including the multiplayer aspect. Apex is very limited when it came to what I was looking for, but still provided many hours of fun, skill testing events and living a few virtual dreams. I knew opening that box would fulfill those wants, needs and desires.

The Xbox One version is the full game, with more tracks, cars and events then what Apex has to offer. Coupled with a much better version of GameDVR and a system that can handle it....well, here is my first run, starting all over from scratch again.