The New Xbox Experience Impressions (Negative Gamer)

Negative Gamer writes:

"As a Microsoft Beta participant I was selected recently to try out the NXE or New Xbox Experience (or something like that) early.

And after playing around with it for a while I have come to several conclusions."

[darkequitus]

who wants to be the new Sarcastic gamer.

darkequitus:PSN/XBL

[FreeMonk]

I also got accepted for the NXE Dashboard, and I am impressed. It is a huge improvement on the old dashboard.

Everything looks pretty and shiny. The Avatars are fun also.

It's the little things that count though. When you get an invite from a friend, on the old dashboard you get the message 'BLARBLAR has sent you an invite', whereas now on the new Dashboard it actually states the game they are playing.

So no longer will I have to check to see what game my friend is playing when I'm playing Halo 3 and he's playing Gears of War 2. Save's time.

It's nice to see your friends list and an image of the box art next to the friend showing what he is playing. Yep, some of the boxart is missing at the moment, but I'm sure MS is on it and will get it all updated before the worldwide release. Call of Duty: WAW and Rainbow Six Vegas 2 still doesn't have boxart from what I've noticed, so I'm sure that MS will get it updated.

I can't wait for the Group Chat and Party features that will make things so much easier when getting ready for a MP session with friends.

Overall, it's better than the original dashboard...and it's free. So stop your moaning!! :)

[ThanatosDMC]

I got it. Basically, it's an XMB but flashier. They made everything easier to scroll over with the left/right up/down direction just like the XMB.

Making Albums/playlist though, i havent figured it out.

[DevastationEve]

XMB is a copy off of Media Center's interface. Windows Media Center Edition predates the XMB in PSP (Sony's earliest verion) by about a year or two. The time it took for them to copy it, no doubt;)

[uxo22]

Really though, how can you take a person seriously that calls himself "NEGATIVE GAMER!"

Who's next "DUMBASS LOSER" who carries a basic theme of telling you how it sucks getting you a$$ kicked on XBL & PSN. /end sarcasm.

[Arsenic13]

What a tool. First of all its not even a beta. Its the full things and all his complaints are so shallow. He cant even find the change themes option and is complaining cause he has the small HDD.

[MiloGarret]

"All old background themes are cut in half by the new graphical interface. Doubtless the new themes will not suffer this. But it has essentially rendered all my old themes pointless."

Ok, now read this second quote: "I still can’t find the menu to change themes. Seriously I looked for like an hour. Why didn’t they leave it where it was?"

So how did he manage to find out that ALL old backgrounds are "cut in half"? This person is a moron, and a bit of a liar, I am never clicking a link to that site again.

[JD_Shadow]

If one theme was cut in half because of the UI, what do you think the other ones will do? You don't need to go through anymore than one to figure out that what happens with one will happen to the rest of them. That's just using common sense.

Sounds like you were trying to find anything you could to discredit the article.

EDIT@Bodhi: But he was able to look at enough for him. Also, that's saying that the UI is kind of clunky, too (it looks like that to me and I think it makes it look less fluid). And he said the OLD background themes, not all of them (and he even said the new one he doubt will have that problem), so your point there is officially gone because you took the entire quote out of context. It still doesn't require you to shift through all of them to figure out that if one OLD theme will do that, ALL old themes will.

It's still looking as if you're reaching for something to discredit the article. Does that mean his opinion about the HD installs aren't valid (you guys bash the PS3 because of the installs)? Is he wrong about the adverts, or the sharpness of the guide thing?

Sounds like you're trying to do the same thing to this article that you accuse the "SDF" of doing to any negative PS3 article. Funny how this stuff works on this site, is it (and I really don't want to hear anymore of this "SDF conspiracy" crap anymore now that I'm seeing this kind of defense from the Xbox crowd)?

SECOND EDIT@Bodhi: Also, looking at how you're posting on here, you seem to be really offended at people saying that MS ripped off of others and seem to bring up Netflix as a defense EVERYWHERE! It's not a crime to make something better, as Sony is doing with Home (using the road that Second Life and Sims used and taking a different path at the fork to make it a lot better and making new innovations onto it). However, MS IS ripping off of people because the interface looks a HELL of a lot like the XMB, the Avatars look almost, if not, EXACTLY like the Nintendo Miis, the whole game invite thing is coming straight from Home.

Oh, wait...I'm sorry, I'm supposed to think of them adding Netflix and seeing that they are SOO original JUST because they decided to add a service that everyone can get on their PC....OOPS, wasn't supposed to diffuse THAT argument with THAT, was I?

[Ronnie07]

I'm in it too and all backgrounds are cut in half ie you only see the top half of any background. I couldnt find the change theme option myself at 1st but it's under your gamertag in the 'my xbox' channel

[Bodhi]

darkpower... If you go on Major Nelson's blog for the NXE info, you'd know by now that some themes don't have the bottom part of the NXE UI. It's not discrediting, it's a valid question. How could he know ALL his themes were cut in half by the UI? The new themes will or won't have the bottom part, depending.

EDIT:
Woah, no one was mentioning SDF or any conspiracy or anything here. Someone mentioned how he could know how the themes were cut in half if he couldn't change it. Old themes are known to be cut in half, but it's a noticeable difference between size from the old dashboard.

It's not that the new UI is clunky, it's that it's set up in a different spot as it once was. It's like calling a library unorganized for reorganizing a book in a different area because they wanted to put it in a more fitting genre.

How am I discrediting any of his criticism? You're getting a little touchy here man, it's a solid question.

It's like if someone said that all the shoes on the shoe rack are the same size, but he's only tested one pair.

How could he know they're all the same size?

You're going a little off the top here darkpower.

@EDIT 2

Alright, since you didn't see the one part where I said the NXE looks like Media Center, I'll post pictures.

http://www.engadget.com/med...

http://farm4.static.flickr....

Media Center came out in 2002 before the PSP and PS3 so apparently they copied them? No, they aren't even similar. Stop trying.

So just because the HOME avatars are more realistic than the Mii's they're not a rip off? Do I really need another image comparison? Apparently:

http://media.arstechnica.co...

Avatars are just a digital representation of yourself, the idea has been floating around for ages like I was saying.

The game invite thing came from Home? People have been requesting a Clan blade or a Party system for the dashboard ever since the dashboard was out. By saying that Microsoft copied game invites from HOME, Sony copied Achievements with Trophies.

Dude, calm down for a split second, copying is competition. Chill out with the OMG OMG OMG COPY OMG. I'm not getting offended off people calling Microsoft copycats, I'm just pointing out that it makes people like you look stupid as everyone does it.

Please, you lost, there's no need for arguments.....OOPS, wasn't supposed to end THAT argument with THAT, was I?

[JD_Shadow]

No, I'm not getting touchy. The 360 fanboys (mostly people like the Mart) LOVE to bring up the SDF every single time someone talks ill of a negative PS3 article, but then when something negative about the 360 comes out (and it wasn't even immature about saying that), you guys just do the same things. Hell, I even expected a load of reports trying to fail this story. I'm just saying that next time you try to invoke that explanation into why so many people dress down a negative PS3 story, keep your defense of the NXE in this article in mind to see that you're basically dressing this guy and his article down the same way you guys accuse the "SDF" (which EVERYONE would be IN THAT then since so many people are against some of the immaturity that is IN some of those negative PS3 articles) of doing. Yeah, it WAS EXTREMELY necessary to bring that up because I'm sick of hearing that excuse every time so many people report an article of that nature (and it's ALWAYS the SAME DAMN PEOPLE who bring them up when that happens).

I think the UI is very clunky, and personally, I never saw anything wrong with the blades (not sure WHY, but I'm probably in the minority here. You always knew where you were in the hierarchy and how to get to where you wanted to go). Here, it looks like you have to search for what you want to get to, and you're never too sure where you really are in the hierarchy (the XMB also does this very well, you always know HOW you got where you ended up so you can remember it for future use). That's always been a sticking point for me (knowing how to get back to where I was and displaying how did I get there) on websites and that.

But to these criticisms, I never said you were without a doubt doing so, I said it SEEMS like that because you and Milo were seeing that tiniest of flaws (if you could call it a flaw, again, you failed to mention that he said OLD backgrounds, not new ones, which you still didn't address in your edit), or that logic and common sense should tell you that if ONE old theme does that, the others will do the same because all the old themes are not optimized for the new UI yet. This is not very hard to grasp without even looking at any of the OLD themes other than the one he viewed. THINK about this, because you're taking an argument that Milo already failed at and making it worse by removing the word OLD from it and then trying to tell me that I'm overreacting while trying to make an analogy that isn't the same thing in order to compare two things.

I do have a grip, you just have to THINK about these arguments you're trying to use to explain your case, because they're pretty empty here.

EDIT: The MS Avatar LOOK came from Nintendo, and the "straight-to" thing is off of Home. And read what I said above because you didn't catch me about improving on someone else's ideas (which MS ISN'T doing, which makes it a copy). Sony took the idea of the achievements and built on that to make a better version (I think) of them. See, you should read what is being said before making the arguments you're making. You're not even getting right the arguments of those you're agreeing with. Yet you're b!tching that I'm disagreeing with you....oops, not supposed to disagree with the Xbox Kings, now am I?

[MiloGarret]

Darkpower, I wasn't trying to discredit him, he did that just fine by himself. If something happens once, do you generalize it to happening all the time? Apparently you and the author of this article are on the same intellectual level, don't assume so much and question "common sense", you'd be surprised at how often it makes NO sense at all. Please don't ever become a scientist, of any kind, please.

BTW: I'm not saying he wasn't telling the truth about the old themes, simply that he was OBVIOUSLY lying about one thing or another.

PS: If you've already responded somehow to me in one of your posts I'm sorry, but I can't be bothered to read some crazy ass fanboy's desperate blog/cry for help. If you ever bother to read my comments you'll soon realize that I make fun of and hate on pretty much anything I don't like, ignoring which console it concerns.

[JD_Shadow]

I'm sorry, but that's just what I have observed out of alot of these 360 fanboys on this site. I don't know if you were around for that whole thing about the techspy blogs where this guy, twice, posted something on his blog about what version of GTA4 was going to be superior and then went on a rant in both of them about EVERYTHING that he could ever find bad about the PS3 that had nothing to do with the game and no one in their right mind would give a crap about while ignoring any 360 fault. Both of those were somehow approved on N4G, and the 360 fanboys were insulting (rather harshly) anyone who said that the articles were filled with flame bait crap (the worst that I've seen in a LONG time). This is normal of any negative article on the 360 that I've seen posted. Someone starts it, and it goes from there, and then the letters "SDF" get brought into it (yeah, I know I brought them up this time, but it was because I KNEW somewhere someone would have because, well, they seem to be responsible for EVERYTHING that the 360 fanboys do not like on here), and it just snowballs. This is why I called you out on your comment, since your whole thing sounded like you looked for the one smallest thing you could find to take apart the ENTIRE thing and went after it like a shark to blood. That and I'm pretty passionate about the gaming business because I've been a gamer all my life and it feels like it's a part of my blood and it kind of pisses me off that certain things are going on now that the past didn't carry with it (I don't think even the Sega/Nintendo 16-bit wars were THIS bad or filled with THIS much controversy. This wall of text will be even taller if I go into my reasons why I think that). So please excuse me if I get more irked at things than some people think I should. It's normal for me to be passionate about everything that has been a part of my life, especially something that has been THAT much of one.

Now, do I think that the guy was telling the entire truth? I don't know for sure (it IS called Negative Gamer for a reason, after all), but I don't think he was intentionally trying to mislead anyone. From what I understand it, each old theme like that will be made out to fit the same amount of space on a person's screen. Now, based on this, if one of those theme's backgrounds gets cut off at a certain point, and all of those theme backgrounds are at the same proportion as the one that you saw get cut off, then you can probably safely assume that it will happen to the rest of them in a very similar fashion. The guy DID say he was searching for an hour, so he may have found it at some point during his search (which is a problem in of itself as to why it took him so long to FIND that thing) and then saw what it did to the themes.

My only concern with YOU was that you were seemly rushing to condemn the criticism too harshly and too fast (again, that's just my prejudice anymore because of some of these 360 fanboys who actually DO reach for crap to try to use against something they don't like). I do agree that he needed to make it a little clearer about if he found it eventually and how he KNEW that, but I bet he did guess it from what I stated above. Plus, again, Negative Gamer is known for overstating and over exaggerating the negatives of EVERYTHING, so it could've also been just how the site is.

By the way, my main venom was actually at Bodhi, who seemed to actually take your own points and really start twisting them. That, to me, IS why I hold prejudiced. Well, the Mart is a key reason, too, but I can't say what I think of him on the Gamer Zone, so I'll leave that at that.

Oh, and you're right about me not being able to be a scientist. I don't think those people would be able to handle MY big brain....*looks around to see everyone stare at him narrowly* WHAT?!!

[Nikkelz]

yeah he's valid because its an opinion,but when hundreds of people like it,his opinion seems rather pointless

[StephanieBBB]

And no im not hating on Sony. Im saying this because mostly competition is good, and I just want to go Home now...

[Gue1]

NXE is just a new interface for the X360, nothing more. HOME is an application. Not equal. No comparisons.

[N4PS3G]

Exactly...thats why Home is boring

[Bodhi]

I'm scared to actually say this here but...

Home = Habbo Hotel HD
NXE = Interface

Differences are astounding aren't they.

[StephanieBBB]

Umm you do know that Sony and Microsoft are competing for customers and they don't see Home or NXE as an New interface and application?

They see it as a marketing product to use for fishing in the customer/finance pond.

To get customers recognision you always have to 1up your compeditor and this is exactly what happens atm.

[Gue1]

well yeah, you're right, but I didn't knew you were talking from that aspect...

[Sony Rep]

Home is like a forum for gamers...

NXE is a ripoff of other applications...

[Bodhi]

How is the NXE a rip-off of other applications? NXE is reminiscent of the Media Center for Windows, and the Avatar idea has been floating around for ages.

I guess Microsoft or "M$" ripped off Netflix off Nintendo and Sony right?

[iNcRiMiNaTi]

home is a ripoff of the sims and second life

[Bodhi]

Exactly, it's basically Second Life, Sims, and Habbo Hotel HD. Don't tell me Sony came up with the idea long before those came into fruition.

[StephanieBBB]

Nope I don't think that they did, but I do know that they "perfected" it ;)

[Magic_The_Celt]

somehow i doubt it will come close to the awesome XMB.

[Maxned]

Somehow i doubt you have a life.

[Magic_The_Celt]

why is that mr. 2 bubbles? because i have an opinion that doesnt match yours

poor pathetic sod

[sak500]

@Ali_the_dick

LOL u calling someone mr.two bubbles, atleast he didnt get banned or had the other account go down to 1 bubble. And you had to create the third account. Howz that mr.3rd account?

[Maxned]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
What he/she said.
Loser.

[Traveler]

Hey Celt, I have a PS3 and a 360 and I prefer even the current dashboard over the XMB. The XMB works, but it is so boring. I have been using that same plain interface in my PSP for years. There is nothing interesting or eye catching about the XMB interface. The themes are better in the dashboard because you get to see different backgrounds on each blade, whereas with the XMB you are looking at the same background the whole time.

The NXE interface seems to be keeping most of the positives of the current dashboard and bringing a whole bunch of new functionality and better design and ease of use.

[na2ru1]

Do you realise what you have just said. Current dashboard better than XMB? So WHY exactly are they replacing the Dashboard?

Are you a 12 year old child? Pretty(more like ugly) looks and background wallpapers always catches the childs eye whereas functionality passes through their air heads'.

Current Dashboard is REALLY clunky. Theirs TOO many navigations and clicks involved compared to XMB - left left, up up up, A, down down down, oops back up one, A. I myself am more than capable of using 360 since i set up and added wireless myself. But it's not about me. What about others? I learnt so much in User Interface Design, i KNOW what i'm talking about.

XMB presents you with information onscreen of what a typical user would expect i.e. megabites, small msg icon next a friend that you haven't even selected. It does so much, with so little navigation.

I give up, the dashboard is honestly the wors pos i have ever seen. it's like it's been made by a bunch of teenagers. Even Nokia and Sony Ericsson no MUCH MUCH better on how to avoid fustrration for the user.

Most people would agree XMB is far more intuitive. period

[Sony Rep]

I'm getting wiff of a flop...

Smells like sh!t...

[pp]

Better than Gaystation when Home comes out.Because Home will be the new place for Gays to meet up .

[xaviertooth]

yeah because when u purchase a ps3, you will be the first one meeting online people :P

[GrieverSoul]

uhm... a gay comment! how mature! I bet u cant wait to meet gay people on other places than your local coffee shop!

[Magic_The_Celt]

Just report this homophobe and move on people

[GWAVE]

How can NXE beat Home when NXE is nothing but a menu upgrade, whereas Home is a social networking program that is separate from the XMB?

If the XMB gets a major visual overhaul, you can start comparing the two, but until then perhaps you should go find some silly "Resistance 2 vs Gears 2" and continue to compare two disparate things like all the other fanboys on this site.

[gnothe1]

with the NXE a lot of you aren't looking at whats going on behind the scenes!! MS has EASED installs in on us an made it seem like GOOD NEW FEATURE!!all their doing is killing the advantage of blu ray. if developers can get away with MANDATORY installs on the PS3 it wont be long before there's 360 games that have MANDATORY installs also. the best selling PS3 was the 60 gig, the new 360's come with 60 gigs. next year we can all bet that there will be a few 360 games that will have mandatory installs because MS wont allow the PS3 to keep the space advantage. didn't rock star state that MS needs to find a storage solution before the next GTA, well allowing installs did just that. all MS has to do is label the game as HDD NEEDED on the box an there you go!! it wouldn't surprise me if this was something that square enix had to have also in order to bring FF13 over to the 360 considering all the FMV that's in the game!! I think MS pulled a wool over our eyes with this one an sold their main weakness to the PS3 as a strength in this update. tell me what you think!!

[Bodhi]

When Rockstar said storage issues, they meant disc storage, meaning DVD vs. Blu-ray.

[titntin]

Thats just bull.
The machine they sell most of, and are pushing really heavilly, doesn't even have a hard drive! It would be a cynical firm indeed who pushed a hard driveless machine so heavilly, whilst persuing a future where you were required to have one. I know there are plenty of MS haters, but few people would credit them with being that evil.

[Death]

All his cons he listed at the top of the article turned into pros at the bottom.

-Death

[JD_Shadow]

"Shiny. I want to touch the shiny."

Yeah, everything new IS shiny. He never said that WAS a negative, but he was just being funny here. But everything has to be serious with you guys, right?

"The new guide button menu is actually quite good. I found that it loads faster and the menus are very easy to navigate and utilise."

Apparently you never read what his gripe with the guide button was (that it wasn't sharp enough). It's alot different than what he said was a positive about the guide. Seems you just saw that he listed something ABOUT the guide button in both and you just assumed without actually reading this.

"Installing games to the HD. I tried this with my new copy of Mirror’s Edge as I said, and wow. Playing with a silent disk drive is like nothing you have ever seen (or heard) before. As for load times; they never bothered me in the first place and half a second off seems pointless."

Again, you never read what WAS the negative about that, only seeing that he had installing in BOTH and just assumed he was saying the same thing. The negative was that there wasn't that much space ON his HD to compensate for the install, but then he said the install made the game run more smoothly. Two different things. Learn to read what is said before going on your rants.

"The new party system and group private chat sounds excellent. I rarely use the mic if I am not playing with people from my friends list anyway. And this will be much easier than muting every other player in a game as I normally am wont to do. Unfortunately, I have yet to try this feature."

There was no mention of this in "the bad" section.

[Bodhi]

darkpower... It's quite apparent that you are a strong Sony supporter, and defender judging from your past comments. If you have nothing to post about the actual NXE itself than don't post here. Certainly do not attack other members for disagreeing with the things the author of NEGATIVEGAMER has put down. It's funny, how you're here posting about the NXE where negative things have been posted where there's another NXE article listing all the great features.

[Death]

HDD installation was a pro and a con to the author. Pro, silent running, con it takes up HDD space. The guide button is "blurry", a con (he also says NXE is "shiny"), but "very good" as a pro. Avatars are a "waste of space", but the new group party chat and games (which use the avatars) sound "excellent".

You may be right, it not that he uses the same things as pros and cons exclusively. It is not very well written and quite contradictory. It's also an opinion piece which he is entitled to. I am also in the early NXE Preview. The guide button is not blurry on my HDTV and I have really gotten used to the different set up and functions of the UI. I'm not sure how themes were "ruined" by the new set up. They are still there, but in many cases easier to see since the functions are now seemingly taken up less of the screen. You can see it and use it for yourself in a few days if you have an Xbox 360.

-Death

[JD_Shadow]

@Bodhi: Yet you're such at a rush to defend EVERYTHING about it whenever someone says something bad about it, which makes you seemly a strong MS supporter. I was just saying that one little thing doesn't discredit his entire article (or that Death was right in what he said), and you go on some rant about me saying that next time someone invokes the "SDF" in an negative PS3 article that people dress down, to make sure you remember this article YOUR dressing down while getting on EVERYONE who DARES say that MS copied off of someone. Newsflash: They're allowed to think that, whether they are right or not. This is a free-thinking website, after all.

Plus, I criticize MS and I'm a "huge Sony supporter"? Why is it that everyone that criticizes MS gets that label immediately. Again, MS isn't the best video game console manufacturer out there (no one is), and why no one is even thinking that Nintendo fanboys can bash MS AND Sony and never get labeled, I'll never know. I could be a Nintendo fanboy (I'm not, but just bringing this up) and you'd never think of that for one second.

You're the one going about spouting empty arguments and getting offended that people are criticizing MS? And you DID say "M$" in quotes in one comment you made, which makes the "SDF" quote fair game. I'll leave you to figure out WHY that is.

@Death: You didn't offend me (even though you blindly defend MS a LOT). But there's more than one aspect to things that can have both a positive and negative to them. Doesn't have to be ALL positive to something like, say, the HD install. People CAN like the decreased load times and that but still dislike the whole thing about taking up space on the HD (hell, until I can get the 500 GB HD for my PS3, I'm not really going to enjoy these multi-GB installs taking up my HD space, though the decreased load times are welcome nonetheless). You were basically saying he had to like all or none of a certain thing with no option of having a gray area there.

While I'm here, might as well comment on this:

@GlossGreen: The site is called "Negative Gamer". They overly focus on the negatives of EVERYTHING! I don't think many are getting that part of the whole thing (not to say that it makes this guys critique any less valid, but I might as well throw that out there since not any people are seeing that).

[Death]

Take HDD installs for example. If you don't feel they are right for you, don't install them. This is an optional feature that users can use if they choose to. How do you really rate this as a con? Do I defend Microsoft alot? I probably do, but I also have friends that work there and have a pretty good idea what they do and how they do it. In some ways this makes me biased and I will admit that freely, but I also give credit where credit is due.

As an example, Killzone 2 looks like it will be phenomenal. I will be getting this game when it hits store shelves. I just read a statement that said K2 will destroy everything on the 360. I wanted to comment on this since I have enjoyed many FPS on the Xbox 360 and don't agree with such an opinionated statement. It will be an awesome game, but that doesn't take away from Halo, Call of Duty, Gears, Resistance, or any other game in the genre that has come out.

Do I dislike the PS3 in any way? I would say no. I simply do not agree with some of the decisions they have made and how they have been treating customers. In many ways they have agreed with me since we have seen some very drastic changes the last two years. If I have done anything, I have provided facts and given sources to make people think. I do not expect everyone to agree with me, but I do want to see them have the necessary information in order to make a rational judgement on things that they may not know.

I'm a gamer. I have a Wii, 360, PS3, Gamecube, PS2, Xbox, Dreamcast, Saturn, N64, Gensis, SNES, NES, Master System etc. Oh yeah, I also have a PC or two. I've been around for awhile and have actually met some of the movers and shakers in the industry. I try to be as objective and unbiased as possible, but at the same time I am human. That's just a little bit about me. Hope that gives you a better idea about who I am.

-Death

[TheZink]

I got it from Major Nelson's early entry contest. Ive been using it since yesterday. It is much better than the blades. Im not really to cool on the Avatars but whatever. Ive downloaded COD WAW and Bad Co to my Hard Drive. They do run smoother which is very nice.

[GlossGreen]

this review is a complete waste of time. The good, Negative Gamer won't be around long enough for anyone to miss them.

[wardrox]

why?

[pshizle]

and it is amazing way better than the old dashboard

360 super quite when installing games =)

[Death]

It's an early preview. :)

Glad to see you are enjoying it.

-Death

[pshizle]

my bad ya its awesome

i got it on friday and i was like ohh no way...none of my friends have it =)

[Mikelarry]

in as well and i prefer this UI to the previous ones. ppl complaining about themes its not like you spend hours just looking at the themes so what if it cuts into half its not gonna stop you enjoying your experience using this interface. i wasnt too big on avatars as well but its grown on me it makes you feel like ms are giving you more ways to personalise your experience on live which to me is not a bad thing. all in all i am loving this new update and since this is just the begining i cant wait to see more innovations ms will be introducing soon.

[Imallvol7]

I got into NXE YESTERDAY!!! I was so excited. The new interface is LEAPS AND BOUNDS better than the old dashboard and the Netflix integration is SPOT ON!!! Thank you MS!!! It feels like new console. However, I don't feel like I have had the chance to test everything yet because none of my friends have NXE yet.

Anyway, there's really no new FUNCTIONS besides netflix (and Avatars are TERRIBLE, they look so weird and act so fruity). But I LOVE the new interface!

[tk]

I think I might be considering buying a XB360 for GoW2. Down here in South Africa the XB360 is R1,799.95 with 5 games included vs the PS2 for R1,699.95 with no games included. Seems like MS is practically giving it away now. It is about 30% less than the Wii and less than 1/2 the PS3 price.

Still worried about the reliability though. PS2 scratched some of my disks - but the PS3 is awesome - not a scratch on even the PS2 DVD's that I play on it. But still the PS2 experience made me wary of disk scratching. I will either be getting a second PS3 or a XB360 - but as I said - RRoD, Disk scratching - how is it doing now?

[DevastationEve]

If you pick up one brand new at a store, it should be a 2008 model. They have the quiet optical drive, the shrunken down CPU and GPU, and no thermal issues. Also, the Power Supply went down from 200 watts to 175 watts, since the new chips use less power. What I do notice, however is that the fans kinda make up for the noise when they do kick in. They're usually very quiet though. The entire system is also much cooler.

[Traveler]

According to an analysis done over at Neogaf the newer Falcon chipsets had something like a 3% failure rate which is right around the same failure rate of the better electronics products out there. Not a single one of my friends or family members that has bought a 360 in the past 8 months has had a single problem. The newer Jasper chipsets are all 65nm (GPU and CPU) and run a lot cooler. I would say that you don't have anything to worry about at this point. Besides, even if you did have a problem MS will fix it for free.

[TheForgotten0ne]

Funny how people always will say that Home is better

Who care about that anyways? If I did own a X360 I wouldn't really care if Home was better or not, and it's not really something you compare at all!

But anyways, now I forgot what I was going to say...so Okey, not funny,

[GWAVE]

NXE is nice and shiny, but mostly pointless. I will say that it's much easier to navigate the menus than the Blade system. It's a lot more like the iPod menu or the XMB.

With that said, I am puzzled by 360 fanboys who claim this will "kill Home once and for all". I thought that Home was "teh fail". Why would it need killing? And how would a menu upgrade kill a social networking program?

[pshizle]

it looks like VISTA SWITCH BETWEEN WINDOWS

[Arsenic13]

I have it and it does require time to get used to, but it should be fully enjoyable when everyone else has it.

[gamfreak]

The new Xbox experience on getting your system disconnect again.
WHAT....!!!!!!!! AGAIN....!!!!!!!!!!