New Xbox Experience hits XBLM
Yesterday was like Christmas for many gamers. What would the new dashboard look like on your Xbox360 and what cool and nifty features would there be for you to exploit? Not many surprises there because thousands of gamers were already “experiencing” it due to the preview programme. Finally the NXE hit the market for the general public. Did you live under a rock in the last couple of months and have no clue what features it holds? Check out the details after the break.
With NXE loved and loathed by many a gamer, it was bound to be very busy on Live yesterday because everyone wanted to give it a whirl, if for nothing else, just so they could finally prove the opinion they created by looking at some pictures and movies. And busy it was! Avatars were flying across the net like they were goose heading south for the winter. Below a small sum-up of the new features available on NXE:
- Create your own Avatar
- Create a Gamer Picture of your newly created Avatar
- Delete 0 score games from your achievement list
- Party mode. Chat with multiple friends at the same time
- Faster and newly designed menus
- Access the Marketplace from Xbox.com
- Stream movies directly from Netflix to your Xbox 360
- Install games to play games from your hard drive
After fooling around with the NXE for a day most gamers have made up their mind about the new dash. Some love it, some loathe it even more than before. What do you think of this new approach of Microsoft’s? Is it an improvement or a disappointment? Are the Avatars too kiddy for all those hardcore gamers or is it just good old fun to fool around with?
All kidding aside, who doesn’t want to see/hear his/her Avatar burp on the dashboard? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
I think the new dash is too cluttered looking, there is way too many adverts for games now and it is definatly not faster than before, I thinks it’s actually slower. It freezes way too many times.
Don’t get me started on the burbing, this shows exactly how childish the avatars really are.
Okay okay, the avatars are kinda cool (mine looks like me :P) but I don’t care for them.
The whole thing has it’s glitze and fireworks and it looks awesome. I particularly like the dark theme that came with it, as well as the intro video. I love what the guide button does, in game and out, allowing more functionality and options. Oh and the party system, haven’t tried it but c’mon, who wouldn’t like it?
However, the navigation itself reminds me too much of the PS3 dash, which is not a good thing. Instead of innovating, it seems like all the consoles are ripping off each other (PS3 with the guide button off of the 360 as an example) and while I like the showy “wow” the navigating is kind of clumsy.
I like the manual start option as well, and the whole burning the game to HDD is a brilliant idea, now my gameplay is louder than my 360!
I know other people had some problems but besides what I listed, I don’t really have any technical issues with it… so far.
François, please fix the spelling error. You spell it “program” in proper English.
It is in proper English.;) In British English programme is the general term for plan, schedule, agenda, course, TV or radio show etc. and a program is a computer software application such as MS Word or Outlook.
In American English there is only the word program and it describes the general idea of a plan, agenda etc. as well as a software application.
fagtits
The new menu system is great. Far more intuitive to use after you’ve used it for a short while. So far I’ve tried Fable II and Fallout 3 installed to hard drive and I’ve only noticed marginal improvements in loading times so probably not worth wasting your hard drive on this option.
I don’t mind the avatars, but they are a gimmick and will quickly wear off for most hardcore gamers.
The party system is cool although glitchy at the moment as is the MarketPlace. Quick Launch is good as the option (finally!!!) to stop discs auto starting when you put them in the tray. If you’re going to play games from your HDD then you need this option turned off for sure.
The biggest improvement for me is the faster iteration through almost every data item on the machine. Arcade games appear instantly as do videos and themes. And I have a ton of all of these on my machine.
We could have done without the featured downloads (ads to everyone else) in every section of the game, but at least they’re 3 four blades away from the info I really need to see. It does slow down the performance of the machine to have it look up info on the MarketPlace as well as what you really want to check. I understand you want to sell and cross sell, but there is no need. It’s an awesome machine and well used already.
Well done MS for a great update. Now just fix the party glitches and the MarketPlace integration and you’re onto a winner.
they’ve had the option to go to the dash on boot for a long time… it was just tucked away in console settings i believe.
I don’t mean the dash on boot option. I mean the auto start option IE when you put a disc in the tray while the xbox is still on, it used to automatically try to start the disc whether it was a game or a CD, DVD, whatever. Now you can turn that auto start off and just start the game when you want to start it. Mega handy and a long time in coming.
Oh, where is that? I need to look for it. Finally indeed.
It’s under Console Settings - Auto Start. Disable it and you can put any kind of disc in the tray without the XBox trying to run it. Sweet.
That is nice … and something I’ve been looking for. Now that I have it, I’m annoyed with having to navigate to the menu when I do want to play the game … I wish they had a third setting that would give you like five seconds press R3 or something right when the disk is recognized … You either do it every time and get annoyed or have to navigate the menu every time and get annoyed. Annoying!
I think it is a must for the game you play a lot such as online games. It’s quieter, will save you a little time (unless it’s Halo 3 where it will actually take longer to load), and useful if you scratch a disc after you installed it.
I love the avatars and want to see more games that incorparate them such as 1 in 100 or that Kefling game. As long as they dont use it for more adult games though.
Love the new blade and dashboard also, you can now see the whole theme from time to time and should be nice to see how 3rd party themes from now work. I also like the way you have virtual box art for all XBLA games, makes it feel like your browsing your local games shop shelves now.
XBLA is a massive improvent in the way the information and the listing are displayed and loaded. Instant knows how many game you have, you can choose just to browse the games you only own and you can even browse just demos and trials. I love it.
Achievements also load exponentially faster now. I had to wait about 2 minutes for them all to load and sometime it wouldn’t let me go down the list as the next game hadn’t even been loaded at that point. Now it’s almost instant and no waiting around.
Adverts are a bit of a drag, but the way they’ve placed them I’m okay with it. Like the animated adverts in a way too. Looks a lot more professional than the old marketplace.
I would like to see the marketplace optimised a little though as it can be a bit slow. Maybe it was under the stress of so many new users.
Community games are a nice addition but the games are not my bag and some feel a bit pricey for what they are. I mean Achievement whores dont even understand how a game can exist now without them. ;)
Finally I’d like to say good job to MS for bringing us something new and fresh. Sure some ideas are stolen straight from others but at least it’s bringing the best of all 3 consoles together. Sick of people slagging companies off for doing this as nothing would improve if they didn’t. Good show I say.
I think a shooter game with the avatars would be fun. :P
Sorry don’t agree about the game install option, it’s well worth NXE update. I think Fallout and Fable both run far more smoothly, plus the huge added bonus of no DVD noise.
Yeah I agree with you on the disk noise thing, but I haven’t noticed any significant reduction in loading times after doing it and it’s using a lot of space on my HDD that could be put to better use. So for me, it’s not all that viable unless I can find certain games that I play a lot where the loading times are being reduced to a reasonable degree.
I think it’s more a selling point for an elite … smaller hard rives are too small to really take good advantage of the feature …
I now have like four unusable games that are scratched that could easily be on my hard drive and working correctly. I would really love to be able to finish a game in Civ Rev but like 7/8ths of the way through it starts glitching out.
everything runs so smoothly
+1
if i wanted a wii i would have bought one… i like most the new features, but not the new dash, or the avatars (i think those should be optional, i wish i could go back)
word
How do you delete 0 gamerscore games on my list? I’ve been looking all over the shop.
Guide button, go left until you see Achievements.
In you go and anything you see with a 0 score you can press X to delete it.
However, to avoid giving yourself a heart attack, if you realise that as it starts to delete one and the working icon is showing, you can still move the selection bar in the background, even though you can’t see it, and begin to delete the other ones before waiting for the one you are currently deleting finish then just don’t do it.
I started doing that last night and for a angry 10 minutes had my gamerscore showing as 0, but it seemed to slowly update itself over time and bring my points back. Scary time for a moment though.
It’s a cluttered mess now. I like the old blades better. Avatars are fine I guess my wife likes them. Finding a game to play/download has definitely been improved. Much speedier and easier to find what you want.
I don’t know how you can say its a cluttered mess. They’ve cleaned up the interface big time. It’s very clear, clean and concise now. And all the adverts have been put on separate blades which are out of sight unless you tab over to the right. Much, much better. Just showing you the information you need to see. Clever stuff.
Do you really think so? I kind of agree that it is cluttered and a bit clunky. Probably better for new users and more approachable to casual users. Maybe I’ll get used to it but for now I’m reaching for the guide button to get back to the text based version with more useful amounts of data on screen.
Crap Crap Crap
I found that last post really useful. Now I can get to sleep at night secure in that knowledge. Any more constructive criticism for us Shitty?
I hate the new dashboard i wish there was some way to get my old one back =(
Perhaps you’d like to go back to cart and horse instead of using your car. Perhaps you’d prefer to listen to the wireless rather than HD TV. Perhaps you’d prefer playing with a stick and a hoop rather than your XBox.
Welcome to the HiDef, faster, trimmer and more useable 21st century. Come join us.
CONS: I feel like i got wii’d on! Avatar’s are for small children playing nintendo. There are way too many things on the dash now.
PROS: Netflix streams but only a collection of weird and old and disney movies. New Releases are only available by mail. Netflix is still cool and the HD streaming works fine. I like the party system. HDD game installs. My deck is much quieter and seems to be cooler; which is nice since I am on my 4th d/t RROD.
NXE will turn us all into kiddie fiddlers, thanks microsoft for pedo-ing up my xbox.
I love it. Now everyone on my friends list can see that I’m a 6′5″ black man with an afro and a white suit.
Also, the increase in speed doing everything is a god-send.
The Avatars are stupid and the new dash is poor at best. I miss the old dashboard alreday. Also all the themes i’ve collected and paid for over the years are practically obsolete. Now there are the “premium themes”,cheeky bastards.
Themes obsolete? In what way? The first blade is cut in half: agreed. But the other three you can now see more of. The guide background is now obsolete of course, but that was always a pain because theme creators insisted on creating guide backgrounds that clashed with the text and so I generally had to customise it to put something with better contrast on. Glad to see the back of that nonsense.
although i do like the new interface and browsing the menu’s
I’ll have to get used to it, don’t like it much right now. Besides I’m getting lots of errors on the marketplace now.
My Xbox freezes constantly now… every 2 minutes or so… SORT IT OUT MICROSOFT!!
The Avatars are poor… I had a Wii, and hated the “Mii’s” on that…
but overall, i LOVE the feel and look of the new dashboard and the options in the guide button… Well done Xbox!!
Does anyone know how to add profiles to the new NXE? I can’t seem to find out where or how to do it.
I have read on the internet that it’s under “more profiles” but I can’t find anything that say’s new profiles???
Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
Woops! (new profiles) I meant more profiles!
if you are SIGNED OUT, and then hit the guide button, there is an option to create a profile, which i believe will also let you recover.
also, when you are signed out, when you go under the “my xbox” blade, click sign in, there should be options to do the same at the end of the row on the right, past all your active profiles.
so, make sure you are signed out.
On the old dash board it would allow you to sign out but I can’t find that option on the new one. I put is on my xbox and select my profile and it just says signed into xbox live with no options to sign out.
Maybe I am just missing something. Is there an option when you are on you profile tab to sign out and if so where is it?
Thnaks again for your help mu.
I think when you bring up the guide (big green shiny x button on your controller) you just need to hit X, at least thats what you used to do before the change.
O.M.G! Sorry about the spelling errors!!!!