I take back everything I said about the new Xbox NXE dashboard
First of all, my initial reaction and thoughts...
- Graphically, it's very appeasing. The avatars are nice for purists, but actual customization for creativity is certainly stiff
- Available content is on in spades. Everything has links to everything that's relevant. Call of Duty: World at War in your drive? You can go straight to it's downloads, see who else is playing and join them, etc.
- On the flip side, new content is hard to find. Sections are divided by an up and down scrolling view. Problem is, you can only see what's next upwards and it doesn't show what's below.
- Likewise, especially for the marketplace, content is primarily previewed in thumbnails. This is nice for presentation, but it restricts just how much information you can see until you have to just go over there and load the actual informtion
All in all, it's very difficult to navigate and overcome. I mean, the NXE (New Xbox Experience) has a friends section, but you can't even see beyond 2 friends on it!
All this is redeemed, however, with the new guide button menu...
nothing particularly big has changed, except for the new party system.
- With the new party system, you can now restrict voice chat between you and people in your party. This means that if you just start a party by yourself and go on online matchmaking fights, you've effectively muted everyone. You no longer have to put up with the annoying 12-year-olds singing their favorite songs, the racists bigots making slurs, and the beat boxing wannabes. Gaming in silence. It's not like anyone has anything smart to contribute.
- Graphically, it's very appeasing. The avatars are nice for purists, but actual customization for creativity is certainly stiff
- Available content is on in spades. Everything has links to everything that's relevant. Call of Duty: World at War in your drive? You can go straight to it's downloads, see who else is playing and join them, etc.
- On the flip side, new content is hard to find. Sections are divided by an up and down scrolling view. Problem is, you can only see what's next upwards and it doesn't show what's below.
- Likewise, especially for the marketplace, content is primarily previewed in thumbnails. This is nice for presentation, but it restricts just how much information you can see until you have to just go over there and load the actual informtion
All in all, it's very difficult to navigate and overcome. I mean, the NXE (New Xbox Experience) has a friends section, but you can't even see beyond 2 friends on it!
All this is redeemed, however, with the new guide button menu...
nothing particularly big has changed, except for the new party system.
- With the new party system, you can now restrict voice chat between you and people in your party. This means that if you just start a party by yourself and go on online matchmaking fights, you've effectively muted everyone. You no longer have to put up with the annoying 12-year-olds singing their favorite songs, the racists bigots making slurs, and the beat boxing wannabes. Gaming in silence. It's not like anyone has anything smart to contribute.