NXE

I'm back my fellow two.shotters. Last week I managed to enter into the New Xbox Experience preview program which allowed a few lucky people to get their hands on the new dashboard update set for November 19th a few weeks early.

I got the update direct to my console Thursday night/early Friday morning so I've had a few days to mess around with it, and all I have to say is that it's great. It's sleek, it runs smoother, faster and everything feels more spacious. It improves on the old dash in every way possible along with adding a few nifty features.

The opening video when you first start is really cool and then from there it goes right into the avatars where you can make your own. That's all very straight forward and below is a picture of my own:



It's like Mii's, but don't be fooled. It's much better. I was scepticle at first about the whole idea of avatars but once you have the opportunity to make your own you really get into it and you'll see yourself messing around with the clothing more than you think.

There's quite a few accessories to choose from, but admitedly it's not as full as it could be but I expect more options to open up once the official release rolls around. Add on to that the news of an 'Avatar store' opening soon and the opportunity to gain unique clothing from earning achievements in games, the choice will grow in no time at all.

Another feature pretty much every 360 gamer has been calling for is finally here in this update to, and that's the 8 person party chat. I tested this out with a few people that are also in the preview and it works perfectly. We tested it while playing games and at the dash and there was no difference between the two, so that will be a favorite for a lot of people I'm sure. Another nice little touch when it comes to party chat is if you get knocked off of live for whatever reason... let's say a game update? Then no worries because as soon as you log back into live you automatically get put back into the party. Saves a lot of time, don't you think?

With that said, my overall personal favorite new feature is the ability to put games to your Hard Disc Drive which I believe is a God send for several reasons.

1. You'll get faster load times and won't succumb to disc read errors or annoying pop ins.

2. It'll save your xbox from doing a ton of work and getting overheated with the constant disc reading which will hopefully lead to less hardware faults.

3. The best reason. Your Xbox won't sound like a fucking plane taking off the entire time you're playing a game. Seriously... you'll be shocked once you play a game from the hard drive and check how quiet your Xbox is.

Putting games to the HDD takes on average 10 mins. I put Fallout 3 do HDD and it takes up 5.9GB so it's probably best to invest in a 120 gig HDD because of all the advantages of doing it.

But there you have it. My little blog on the NXE.

Trust me, you'll love it. Happy gaming and enjoy killing in Gears 2 later this week. I know I will.

- Sin