Xbox.com Upgraded, Now Kinder, Gentler

Those of you in the NXE preview program--and as of yesterday, that's a lot of you--have probably noticed that up till now, Xbox.com hasn't supported some of the new features being introduced in the dashboard update. Mainly, the gamer pictures for NXE users have been displaying as big fat question marks when those users apply an avatar snapshot as their pic, and no other sign of custom avatars has been spotted around Xbox.com profile pages.

After a little bit of downtime and a little maintenance, the site is back up and running and now supports all those snazzy custom avatar features you've been oh so excited about. See below for an example of what your avatar will look like on your profile page. As dumb as I thought avatars were initially, I have to disclose the amount of time I sat there trying on stupid virtual outfits for my dude. It was a long time.

Don't forget: If you haven't gotten into the NXE yet, you and everyone else will be downloading it tomorrow when you power on your console.

Too bad you can't make the avatars look more like... yourself. I think my Mii looks more like me than my avatar does.

Yay, just one more day.

Any word on the online marketplace they were talking about? That's the only change to xbox.com I care about.

"Any word on the online marketplace they were talking about? That's the only change to xbox.com I care about."

I was referring to this. But I never saw a date before so I didn't know it was supposedly launching when the NXE launches to the public, missed that bit.

a nice feature

All you really need is a giant bomb logo on the front of the hoodie, and a luchadeer on the back and you're laughing.

Oh, its good to see that he's been playing Banjo-Kazooie. Review coming soon? 5 Stars.

I happen to love my avatar.

Online marketplace!! Woo!

@Ginnunga:  Actually they did mention that the entire marketplace would be browseable online and you can queue up downloads for your 360 which will start the next time the console powers up.  I don't know if that's been dropped or not yet though.

Can someone confirm that I can (if I leave my xbox on) set up a demo to download from work, while I'm at work to be available to play when I get home? Because that seems really cool.

"Too bad you can't make the avatars look more like... yourself. I think my Mii looks more like me than my avatar does."

I like that I can see my download history on the interwebz, for example, did you know that the first ever thing I downloaded was a 10.000 B.C. theme? Yes, it's true.

Right now if you click the my account tab and select download history, you can queue your previous downloads up for... download, again, so we can safely assume this will come to all marketplace content.

A lot of the utility parts of the new marketplace is up. You can view your download queue - change the download order, remove items from queue, check why it cant be downloaded (like not enough space) -, you can also change your credit card details and gold membership details. The last two were already there but now its folded into the new interface. The download list is pretty cool, if your someone - unlike me - who leaves there Xbox 360 on all day long then you can set things to download from work/school/prison/burleusqe then you can update the list and have a new game experience (including full arcade games/xbox originals) ready for when you get home. Awesome :)

So, are the Giantbomb staff's friends lists all filled up or is there room for at least one more. :-)
Anyway, can't wait to get the NXE tonight/tomorrow. Time to go check out the Live Marketplace.

Why is Brad's avatar pregnant with a box?

"Why is Brad's avatar pregnant with a box?"

This news post just puts me in despair, showing that the NXE avatars will have not have decent sideburns...

I believe that is a hoodie he has on and that is the pockets for said hoodie.

Neat!

Good to see the question mark go away. 

Brad, your Avatar's hair is totally the wrong colour.
Thanks for the update though!

so THATS why my gamerpic has been acting all wierd

HA, yours looks fat, and it has huge hands.. x_x

" ...Come on, who has muttonchops in this day and age?"

Well I for one have muttonchops from time to time.

Agreed. Facial hair seems to have more diversity nowadays than scalp hair... especially for a bald dude like myself. My beard is the only hair I can style that people will notice. I demand more beards. Fallout 3 was onto a good start with their variety, but they needed to let us mix and match sides/cheeks, upper lip, lower lip, and chin styles. Four slots instead of just one,

I just tried to check my Xbox.com page to see if anybody was on, only to find that that page doesn't exist anymore.

Hey man I had really awesome sideburns (like the NXE ones) a few year ago.

"Come on, who has muttonchops in this day and age?"

You spent a "long time" trying out virtual outfits, only to opt for black hoody and blue jeans? How inspired....

"Too bad you can't make the avatars look more like... yourself. I think my Mii looks more like me than my avatar does."

I hugely disagree.  The avatars have way more options for clothing and little details.  I made mine in a matter of minutes and it still looks far more like me than my Mii ever has.  It's also already had more use in the past week, than my Mii ever had in the past two years.

14k gamerpoints brad, you need a mentor with a german sounding last name :)

i went to xbox.com just now and I can't seem to find the login. maybe they're having trouble with it?

i have a good set of mutton chops see my profile ;)

I really don't see why this is a big deal?
Its a new look for the dashboard, the menus are more intuitive but seriously....whats the big deal? Why the hype?

I was really pumped to get my avatar going, but now that I realize how limited the options are I'm seeing that Microsoft is going to make a whole lot of moola off extra clothes and accessories. Moola that I won't pay :)

Looks goofy

I think that Microsoft, as big a deal as they made out of Avatars, made a wise decision by not making customizable mustaches an option. This cuts back on the number of Hitlers found in public games. Some people think they're so funny.

dude, no.  I originally took a grand total of 10 minutes to figure out how the dashboard worked when I originally got the console.  I can't for the life of me figure out how this new thing works.  It took forever to find my way into system memory to delete stuff.

I was looking for sideburns too...

also no mustache beard combos?

That looks kind of cool, I hope it is better than it looks though, I m hoping to rip Fallout 3 onto my hard drive.