New Xbox Experience

[Chris]

So I take it most of us 360 users have downloaded the dashboard update now, what do you all think of it?

Overall I think the new interface is a huge improvement. I never liked the old dashboard with the 'blades', always felt the information was too cluttered. I'm not sure the new interface actually makes finding stuff any easier, but it's certainly a lot nicer to look at.

I also like how if you use a theme it integrates a lot better now. The background images sort of act as a wallpaper, and you get scenes from the game the theme is from as little background placements on your friends list. For example I'm currently using the Gears of War 2 theme and when browsing my friends there's a different cutout scene for each different game being played, like for instance a downed helicopter on one, a vehicle on another... It's a nice touch.

As for the Mii Avatars, well, I never really thought they were needed, but I guess they're kinda cool. A decent amount of customisation is available, though there could be more clothing options (anyone know if there are ways to unlock more?). Again some nice little touches on that, offline friends will appear asleep, and friends playing the same game will appear to chat to each other on your friends list.

What have you done with your avatar? Did you create a version of yourself, or something else?

As for new features, haven't really used anything. Being able to create a party seems pretty useful. Some randomer invited me to join theirs but I declined since I have no clue who they are. But I can imagine in cases where I wanna play a game with the staff members here, it will be a lot easier to just get us all into a party beforehand, and we can talk there etc.

Being able to burn games to the hard drive for faster and quieter play is also pretty decent, except not if you only have a 20GB drive :/

So yeah that's my little mini-review, I might have missed some more new stuff out but if I have that's simply because I don't know it's there... You see when I was browsing around I noticed that there is a version of Vigilante 8 in the Xbox Live Arcade. I almost came when I saw this, one of my favourite all time games for the PlayStation 1 !!! Had to download that of course, can't wait to play it.

So yeah, discuss the update

[little_homer]

I tryed, and i like it. Waaayyy better than the old one.. I like the installing to hard drive option, gta iv there of course:D

[Bulletproofboy]

CHRIS

That was me who invited you

IM kings 0f zeal

[rappo]

I like it - nothing amazing, but definitely an improvement. The amount of "cutesieness" that they're going for sort of bugs me, but it's okay, I'll get over it I just use my Xbox to play videogames, I never take advantage of any of these other silly features, so I doubt this update is really going to affect my Xbox usage. To me it's just a nice new interface!

Edited November 19, 2008 by rappo

[Noru]

This is a huge improvement over the old dashboard. I like it better then the old one, anyways I never did really care about the Avatars but I guess its a neat addition.

[Bulletproofboy]

I like it

I like the Mini blades and the new xbox guide

[Huckleberry Pie]

Hmm, not exactly the XMB-killer, but at least it's a better stretch than the blades interface. Anyway, is this a permanent firmware upgrade or something?

[Artur]

I like it - nothing amazing, but definitely an improvement. The amount of "cutesieness" that they're going for sort of bugs me, but it's okay, I'll get over it I just use my Xbox to play videogames, I never take advantage of any of these other silly features, so I doubt this update is really going to affect my Xbox usage. To me it's just a nice new interface!

Yeah same it kinda annoys me but it's not too bad.

I like it

I like the Mini blades and the new xbox guide

Yeah whenever I get lost in the actual dashboard I just press the guide button and use the Mini blades to find my way around

Overall the update seems nice, kind of hard to get used to first but I'm sure everyone will eventually. The party feature is useful when you need to talk to more than 1 person or need to organize something. As for the Avatars, they're pretty useless IMO apart from the games you can use them in and for your gamerpic. I made mine into a pale guy with the skull face paint and aviator glasses haha. Kinda looks like a zombie. A cool feature to integrate with the Avatars would be the ability to gain outfits from playing certain games. Like getting a COG outfit or WWII stuff for getting achievements or something.