The New Xbox Experience, or as I refer to it, the new 360 Dashboard is obviously out. If you’ve got an Xbox 360 that’s connected to the internet, you have to update your console as soon as you turn it on, sorry folks you can’t bypass it and there are NO exceptions. So get used to this new experience because this is what your machine will look like until it dies, you die, or Microsoft decides to make ANOTHER Xbox Experience.
A bunch of the guys in the office have some interesting opinions on the whole thing and here are a few of our observations along with others from bloggers on the net:
1) The download is really fast. Owners with hard drives that aren’t 100% full will be able to update with no problem, but Xbox 360 Arcade fans that rely on memory cards can get in on the free 512MB card deal from Microsoft. I’d say your best bet is to go with the 20GB hard drive for $20 if anything. The update won’t be as fast as the 10-second patches you’re used to for standard Xbox Dashboard upgrades, but clocking in at somewhere between five to ten minutes, it’s still faster than standard PS3 firmware refreshes. And this changes the entire UI.
2) The avatars are cool but need serious work. We think that the work isn’t necessary in the sense that you’ve still got the option of using your old gamerpics to represent your gamertag to the rest of Xbox Live, but everyone can create a Nintendo Mii-like avatar. Because there are only a few clothing options and customizability selections which are all kinda cheesy so essentially your Mii will only kinda look like you. But for the most part we like them.
3) Performance is better everywhere. The new Dashboard lift restrictions about how many resources it can use, thus giving you a much speedier and more fluid browsing experience. For example, your Xbox Live Arcade game list loads instantly, instead of one at a time in the order you downloaded them. Other time savers are the ability to bring up the Xbox guide from wherever you are and jump into another game, bypassing the need to reroute from back in the Dashboard. That’s pretty sweet to those of us who know what I’m talking about!
4) It’s organized better. By putting in a game and going to its info screen, you can look at its achievements, all its possible downloads and access game details like whether or not it supports 1080p and co-op. In fact, you can do this for all the games which gives you an easy way to browse around and learn what games you might see on WorldGaming.
5) Blades are still there if you want them. Even though you might be ”stuck” with the new interface in the actual Dashboard, you can hit the Xbox guide button on your controller and hop around the console that way. There really isn’t a reason to not like the new interface, but if you’re one of those psychos that hates things because they’re new (well then you’re probably not reading this blog or on WorldGaming), then you’ve got an option.
So those are 5 early observations, tomorrow I’ll have 5 more. Odds are you’ll probably disagree with soem of the things we’re saying here so shoot me back some messages and let me know what you think.
Aaaaaaaaaaaand…vote on the web poll and let us know your thoughts!!!
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