My Xbox 360’s New Look
Originally published at Bewitched, Bothered, Bewildered. You can comment here or there.
The Electronic Entertainment Expo most famously known as E3 is in full swing over in sunny Los Angeles and the news threads are already coming in thick and fast from the opening ceremonies. One of the first was of course Microsoft and their XBox 360 presentation which covered a huge amount of features I’m really looking forward to, however the most shocking of these features is the news that come Autumn my 360 will be receiving a brand new dashboard interface. Not just a minor software upgrade, the whole user interface and functionality will be altered.
Image from XBox360 Fanboy
While I understand that many people disagree with this theory, I’m one of those that believe the new update looks to be a fairly big rip-off of the Nintendo Wii and Apple iTunes all in one go, the main menu comprising a coverflow style selector while your gamer card now adds a Mii avatar…you all know what I mean. A little cartoony character you can make up to look exactly like you. This will then be used to give a ‘virtual environment’ method of viewing your friends list, with all online friends popping up in the background doing their own little thing. Along with this improvements are apparently to be made to the actual interaction side of things, with chatting and sharing images and music becoming easier, along with an interesting new ‘permanent group’ option to help people who want to play together, stay together. The current 360 system makes it very easy to get separated from your mates when you least want to.
I’m still a little unsure if I do like it, however it seems I’ll just have to let it grow on me. It has enough gimmicks that it should eventually.