So today saw the launch of Microsoft's new dashboard for it's much loved Xbox 360 console, and like many I was eager to try it out for myself. So I thought it best that I write up a early impressions blog to speak about what I currently think of the new dashboard system now that it's finally with us. For some the NXE came early, with many having the new system for a good week or so now in the beta program. But for most today was the first day we got our sweaty hands on the new look of our Xbox 360 consoles. The launch seemed to go well, although there have been certain sections down and theres a good few error messages to be found but to be totally honest, these things are to be expected when you launch such a huge impacting update. For me personally I did have to go down the Network Settings route to get my system to update, sadly no prompt message appeared when I launched my console but I eventually found a way to get my system to update. So I watched that weird video that made no sense whatsoever and created my avatar. Now I have to admit I have spoke angrily in past blogs about this new feature, but in a strange kind of way I was pleasantly surprised.

Avatars don't seem to make much sense, the only sense I can see is to make more money for Microsoft. They affect nothing and add almost nothing to the experience to be honest. Yet in a odd kind of way they are quite cosmetically pleasing, I was able to get some form of representation in my avatar (named Virtual Joseph for those interested, basically the superhero version of me) and they don't affect your enjoyment of the new system as much as I thought they would. They only appear on around two screens if that, you can of course view your friends avatars on the friends channels and I have to admit they actually kind of do add something to that list. Seeing what games your friends are playing by looking at the box art is also a nice new addition. It's a very clean interface that runs well, of course at the moment there are a couple of issues I have come across. Certain sections of the marketplace took way to long to load and I did come across a issue with the blades while playing some Guitar Hero: World Tour. But nothing that won't be fixed in a few patches or so. 

 

It is also worth stating how much nicer it looks, it's a worthy challenger to the PS3's XMB (Xross Media Bar) now and does indeed look modern on a good HDTV screen. It's also nice how the new update implements your old themes you may have purchased over the years. I loaded up my old football addidas theme and it looked quite good. But of course we will see new themes hit the marketplace in the months to come, they will be move then just generic graphics taking advantage of the newer design of NXE. There is already a Fable 2 theme hitting out 360's for us to enjoy. But it's great credit to Microsoft for keeping the masses happy and allowing us to still have our favourite gamertags or themes. It's important because it still feels like a more personal representation of ourself online then the avatars are at this point in time so it's nice to see that included.

Of course being a so called 'European' we don't get Netflix which is a US only extra (you lucky yanks) but there was some promising news in an interview from Eurogamer where the NXE main developer did confirm that a number of US Microsoft folks had been bought over the pond to work on implementing such services over here for us British and European folks. So the chance of getting it might be a little better then we thought, although of course it won't be Netflix But heres hopeing. At the moment Inside Xbox isn't exactly as we remembered, theres no MrPointyHead at the moment though I'm sure he'll poke his head around sometime next week. There are a hell of a lot of advertisements aswell, now at this moment in time it's not such a big deal but I have a sense that eventually I might get sick of the adverts, I have to wonder how fair it is to advertisement to gamers who already pay a good amount of sterling or dollar for the service each year. Is that even fair? the XMB as little if any advertisements and that's free.

But anyway, now on to the best feature of the NXE. The ability to install games on to your systems Harddrive. Now if your like me and have a large 120GB HDD that cost you a arm and two legs (thanks Microsoft) then you finally have a reason to be pleased you bought it. Now for some small maths, I had 86B of space when I went into the NXE and have since installed Guitar Hero: World Tour and Mirror's Edge. Now I have 74GB which I don't think is bad at all. You could confortable save a good few games on the system and it's worth it. Yes neither Mirror's Edge or World Tour are loading hogs but both have a loading system that frustrates me and I have seen great results. Much better then I was expecting, Mirror's Edge generally loads faster but it's most noticeable in those dull elevator moments when the game is loading a new level. Things are just faster and much more impressive. But the biggest impression came with GH:WT, since installing the game to my system I have seen load times shoot down. While playing a setlist the game only takes around 4-5 seconds to load the second song up, instead of the 15-20 seconds (if not more) that it did before installing. Also worthy of note is how quiet it makes your 360, it's like music to your eager ears. It's so damn quiet and it's great. It's easily the best new feature of the New Xbox Experience.

It's still early days though, but at the moment I'm liking it a lot. Not everything added makes sense and I am worried of them over milking avatars, but theres a lot to like here and it's just such an impressive improvment over the Blade Dashboard system. Things look cleaner, sleeker and fresher. Infact everything looks more.... Microsoft.

Written by Joseph Bayliss (TrueEnglishGent)