Xbox 360 NXE
Nov. 15th, 2008 01:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slycatSooo, after I applied to get hold of the new Xbox dashboard some weeks ago, I heard nothing more of it. Until today when they decided to issue a third wave of applicants access to the new dashboard known as NXE, 5 days early. It came in the form of an automatic dashboard update when I fired up my Xbox this evening and it installed fairly harmlessly.
First impressions are that the interface is really slick and easy to use. At first it took a while to find everything I'm used to but I've pretty much got the hang of it now. There's only a few negative points so far, however all of which I expect will be sorted on the 19th when everyone gets access to it.
Firstly if you have the new dashboard and you chat with someone with the old dashboard over the microphone, it's next to impossible to work out what the other person is saying. It's fine in game however so it must be an incompatibility between the two which will obviously be fixed when everyone else has the new dashboard.
Secondly, the Primetime feature which was advertised as one of the features which would be in the new dashboard, and one I was quite keen to try, is absent. It turns out it wasn't finished in time, but due to the new architecture of the dashboard, apparently you don't have to wait 6 monthly periods for new updates so hopefully it'll turn up in the new year. To those who don't know what it was suppose to be, it's basically an area where scheduled games occur. The main application is for massively multiplayer events such as a 100 player game of 1 vs 100 (the quiz show), etc.
The other gripe is one I doubt many will have anyway. Basically Scene It! Box Office Smash is supposed to be one of the first game with the Xbox's new avatars (Miis) in game. However the game seems to totally ignore the fact I've got my own avatar and just has you select one of the default ones. Hopefully this is something which will also be fixed on the 19th, maybe via a patch.
Talking about avatars, no, there's no furries in there... yet. At the moment, you can get some growly teeth and tiger face paint along with pointy ears (but more in the vain of pixie ears) but at the moment, all avatars look distinctly human. There's certainly scope for them to be add animal features in the future but you can be sure it'd be for an additional price. Ultimately, the avatars seems like another revenue stream for Microsoft like themes and gamer pictures are at the moment, where you're buying stuff to customise your console and not actually buying anything tangible.
Otherwise, the new dashboard is a big improvement over the old system. It doesn't go to the extent of making you feel like you've got a new console which is what Microsoft would have you think, however it's certainly a nice new skin for the system which does give it a new lease of life :)
First impressions are that the interface is really slick and easy to use. At first it took a while to find everything I'm used to but I've pretty much got the hang of it now. There's only a few negative points so far, however all of which I expect will be sorted on the 19th when everyone gets access to it.
Firstly if you have the new dashboard and you chat with someone with the old dashboard over the microphone, it's next to impossible to work out what the other person is saying. It's fine in game however so it must be an incompatibility between the two which will obviously be fixed when everyone else has the new dashboard.
Secondly, the Primetime feature which was advertised as one of the features which would be in the new dashboard, and one I was quite keen to try, is absent. It turns out it wasn't finished in time, but due to the new architecture of the dashboard, apparently you don't have to wait 6 monthly periods for new updates so hopefully it'll turn up in the new year. To those who don't know what it was suppose to be, it's basically an area where scheduled games occur. The main application is for massively multiplayer events such as a 100 player game of 1 vs 100 (the quiz show), etc.
The other gripe is one I doubt many will have anyway. Basically Scene It! Box Office Smash is supposed to be one of the first game with the Xbox's new avatars (Miis) in game. However the game seems to totally ignore the fact I've got my own avatar and just has you select one of the default ones. Hopefully this is something which will also be fixed on the 19th, maybe via a patch.
Talking about avatars, no, there's no furries in there... yet. At the moment, you can get some growly teeth and tiger face paint along with pointy ears (but more in the vain of pixie ears) but at the moment, all avatars look distinctly human. There's certainly scope for them to be add animal features in the future but you can be sure it'd be for an additional price. Ultimately, the avatars seems like another revenue stream for Microsoft like themes and gamer pictures are at the moment, where you're buying stuff to customise your console and not actually buying anything tangible.
Otherwise, the new dashboard is a big improvement over the old system. It doesn't go to the extent of making you feel like you've got a new console which is what Microsoft would have you think, however it's certainly a nice new skin for the system which does give it a new lease of life :)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-11-28 05:32 am (UTC)