$349, 500G, comes with remastered Gears, an extra controller of your choice, and an extra game of your choice (vanilla Destiny is available). From Walmart.

http://deals.kinja.com/todays-best-gaming-deals-gears-of-war-bundle-g710-ke-1727708035?commerce_insets_disclosure=on&...

If you don't get a kinect, you're not really getting an Xbox One. This is still a sweet deal, but you should be damn sure you get that kinect.

Wish I had one, but I don't. Hoping the new OS update to Win10 style will fix many of the crap UI issues.

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If you don't get a kinect, you're not really getting an Xbox One. This is still a sweet deal, but you should be damn sure you get that kinect.

That's funny-- if MS hadn't started selling the Xbone without Kinect, I'd currently own a PlayStation 4.

I would agree, but I have actually never used an Xbox One without a Kinect, so I'm not really sure how different it would be.

As it is now, though, I rarely use the Xbox UI. As much as I always said, "That's dumb, I'm never going to talk to my Xbox," that's all I do. Voice commands are the greatest, and I'll be damned if I've ever had it not recognize a command. It's so great.

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Would have guaranteed a PS4 purchase for me if the Kinect had been forced upon me. Not worth the money or the space if you ask me. That current bundle offered in the original post sounds like the best deal around.

If you don't get a kinect, you're not really getting an Xbox One. This is still a sweet deal, but you should be damn sure you get that kinect.

I guess I'll never really have an Xbox One, then.
Pretty stupid on Microsoft's end to rip features out just to push their proprietary hardware on us, since PS4 can do pretty much everything a Kinect does (outside of recording your face) without the need for extra hardware.

Is it extremely annoying to live without the quality-of-life that the Kinect permits us to have? Yes.
Is it worth an extra $100? No. They can make it as inconvenient as they want, but they'll break my arm long before they twist it enough for me to give in to their garbage.

That said, given that the most recent Kinectless update made the OS almost tolerable (although I got a good laugh at Sammy's rage when I had to explain to her how to save a capture recently... she is officially never going to like Xbox One, but she wanted to get her Black Ops 3 beta fix in), I'm very hopeful that the NXE coming soon will further separate the Xbox from the Kinect (although I can see how MS would be hesitant to further devalue the crap that they forced upon early adopters).

So yeah, this is an excellent deal, especially if you don't want to jump through extra hoops to get it cheaper.
You just have to tolerate the horrible OS for a couple more months.

Or you could just do yourself a favor and get a PS4 instead. :P

and the Xbone + Kinect is on a whole different level. My PS4 is simply a gaming system. The Xbone is TV, Netflix, Blueray, Radio, and Games (probably more). Not because PS4 can't do those things, but because my wife can use the xbone and not the PS4. She will simply never "get" controllers. But she gets talking to the Xbone. It's easy and intuitive and does all of the work for you. Plus, when you have your hands literally full because you're trying to feed a screaming baby, there is *nothing* better than being able to just tell the TV what channel to watch. It has become the gateway to our digital entertainment system. It controls all of the devices, turns them all on and off at once, changes the channel when we ask it to, records clips, pauses and unpauses movies, all with voice alone. Near as I can tell PS4 voice recognition is only good at displaying "your PS4 can't respond to voice commands right now" when I say something that is in no way related to asking the PS4 to do something.

Microsoft would be far better off selling a cheapo microphone and UR blast-only kinect instead of forcing the camera on everyone (which is still pretty wonky despite being a major hardware upgrade to the last kinect), but the experience of being able to talk to your system and not worry about which remote you need or how to teach someone new how to use it or where the menu functions are... it's really incredible.

That said, given that the most recent Kinectless update made the OS almost tolerable (although I got a good laugh at Sammy's rage when I had to explain to her how to save a capture recently... she is officially never going to like Xbox One, but she wanted to get her Black Ops 3 beta fix in), I'm very hopeful that the NXE coming soon will further separate the Xbox from the Kinect (although I can see how MS would be hesitant to further devalue the crap that they forced upon early adopters).

Seriously, I really love my Xbox One (and Kinect!), but how did Microsoft screw up the One UI so much? Especially after the 360 update which gave us the most intuitive console UI ever. Party chat and friends, etc. is still a freaking mess on the One, and it was a selling feature of the 360. How did they screw that up? Making everything it's own "app" that needs to be opened every single goddamn time was the biggest mistake.

I'm rare here in that all my pre MS Bungie was from friends, so I have no hatred for Microsoft or love for Apple. As such, I enjoy Microsoft software. I use office. I use their new web browser. When in doubt, I go for the Microsoft product, as they don't make no shit. I love Windows. Like, all of em except 8.1. Windows 2000, ME (plug and play support), XP, Vista (drivers worked great for me), 7, 8, 10. Love em all. I used Microsoft Windows phones too until they ruined them with WP7.

All that said, I think they only made one mistake with the Xbox One, and that's making it run Windows. What a travesty.

That's got to be some kind of crime.

Though, Windows 8 proper didn't have that taunting fake Start button like 8.1 does, at least...

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For those of us not in the know, what makes the Kinect so valuable to the Xbox One? I'm considering getting the Xbox One and would be interested in this information.

I'm rare here in that all my pre MS Bungie was from friends, so I have no hatred for Microsoft or love for Apple. As such, I enjoy Microsoft software. I use office. I use their new web browser. When in doubt, I go for the Microsoft product, as they don't make no shit. I love Windows. Like, all of em except 8.1. Windows 2000, ME (plug and play support), XP, Vista (drivers worked great for me), 7, 8, 10. Love em all. I used Microsoft Windows phones too until they ruined them with WP7.

All that said, I think they only made one mistake with the Xbox One, and that's making it run Windows. What a travesty.

Windows 10 should be coming soon to the phones and Xbone. I think we'll see some major improvements in the XB1 UI. If it is anything like the Xbox app for Win10, we should be very happy with the changes.

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Not as much of a "deal" though.

1TB HD, Faster loading times, comes with the $150 elite controller.

Your cost $500 and it doesn't look like it comes with Kinect. If you consider the previous bundle I mentioned the only thing they are really cutting you a deal on is the extra 500G in the HD. I'd rather just buy the other bundle and the elite controller separately for the same price.

http://majornelson.com/2015/08/31/new-xbox-one-elite-bundle-and-lunar-white-wireless-controller/

Honestly it's a really hard thing to explain just how awesome it is. I totally, completely, 100% get how Microsoft botched the initial launch of Xbone by focusing on the Kinect and ignoring games. The more that I use the kinect, the happier I am with it. It gets better with every update, and it really is the killer tech for the xbone that PS4 can't touch. The simple ease of saying "xbox pause" when you're in the middle of a netflix movie and want to get a drink or something, and then "xbox play" when you get back... It's terriffic.

Everything is easier and (mostly) intuitive. "Xbox, record that" in the middle of play without interrupting your play or taking you out to menus... seamless. "Xbox snap friends" to see who's online in a sidebar without taking your hands off the controller and making yourself vulnerable mid-pvp match. Things like that which let you keep doing what you were doing without needing to take your attention away from that activity - it's awesome.

Still waiting for a deal on a separate Kinect. Back when I bought my One, the extra mark-up for it was definitely not worth it, but come November's update, it just might.

Kinect makes my XB1 so much more useful that I haven't bothered to update my Harmony universal remote; aside from the VCR my Xbox is the only media device talking to my TV right now.

-- Steve finds voice commands immensely useful, for instance when watching TV or Netflix while washing dishes. :)

I just don't get paying an extra $150 for the elite controller but not paying the $100 for the kinect. If you don't buy the elite controller, you still have a fantastic controller, but if you don't buy the kinect, you have nothing.

Mind you, I think $150 for a controller is very damn expensive, no matter how efficient it is.

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The Metro interface was great for what it was used for, touch. I installed software to get the start menu back for desktop mode, but on my tablet it was amazing.

Windows 8.1 tried to do the best of both worlds, which didn't do anything. The universal search function was gimped, for example, in Metro applications, and the start button on the desktop just loaded up the standard homescreen. Worthless.