NXE HANDS ON Posted by Joe Anderson on Nov 3, 2008 22:55 (242 days ago) |
The New Xbox Experience is only a few weeks away and it seems that Xbox fans everywhere are looking forward to customizing their avatars and getting to grips with the new look dashboard. Working here at WonderwallWeb I have been lucky enough to have been given access to the NXE earlier than most and having played around with most of it’s features (some such as the Xbox Live Party Mode will not be available till launch) both online and offline, I have been left very impressed.
After the 7-8 minute download to upgrade your system is complete you are greeted with a snazzy introduction video, then once this pleasantry is out of the way, the brand new but still slightly familiar dashboard is there to in front of you. There is no doubt that the previous dashboard was easy to navigate, however it wasn’t the most pleasing thing to the eye and therefore this new change is a welcome one. Gone are the swooshing blades and in their place are some rather snazzy sliding panels instead. On the upper right of the screen is your gamercard, complete with picture, friends online and the number of messages you have and this occasionally changes to show your gamerscore, On the left hand side of the panels you will find a menu, pushing the left trigger up will glide you through these menus which consist of the Welcome menu, Spotlight, Game and Video Marketplace, My Xbox Menu and Inside Xbox and your Friends list.
The first menu you will be drawn to is the Welcome menu, at the moment this consists of four panels, What’s Hot which is a summary of the latest features included in the NXE such as Avatars, Parties, Community Games, Hard Drive installing and Marketplace on the Web, also included on the welcome menu is Xbox Essentials which basically gives you a quick guide to the console and then there is also the option to watch the intro video again and finally you also have the option to hide the welcome menu from view.
The Spotlight menu is perhaps where you will spend most of your time to begin with, first up here it shows any disc you have in the tray, with the next panel along being your profile, this is where you will see your avatar standing staring at you, with any moto you have chosen being spoken through a bubble above his head. The profile panel consists of your gamerscore, latest games played and of course your avatar, one press of a button here though and you are met with all manner of options, such as the ability to check messages, edit your profile, customize your avatar (we will get to that in a minute), change the theme, manage your account and switch profile. Also included in this profile menu is a panel for each game you have played under this gamertag, each with their own dedicated panel, these show achievement, game specific score and the last time you played.
 Obviously the main draw out of the options mentioned above is the ability to customize your Avatar and therefore it does deserve it’s own paragraph. Hitting the customize avatar button will bring up a screen to enable you to create your Avatar, there is a really good choice of features such as noses, eyes and hair to enable you to create a fairly good representation of yourself, if that is what you wish to do of course. Once you have created your avatar you can then dress him/her, again there is already a great selection of items for you to choose from, I personally opted for some jeans and a shirt as you can see from the picture, however there should be a diverse enough range to suit everyone’s taste and this choice will only get bigger in the future. When your Avatar is to your liking you can even take a picture of him and use it as your gamer picture, which is a great idea.
Elsewhere in the spotlight menu you are greeted with ads for the latest games and features, such as new game packs or exclusive interviews, which in a way is similar in nature to the Inside Xbox menu which gives you access to the latest movie clips, game trailers and interviews.
The Friends menu is fairly self explanatory, here you can check out your friend’s avatars, invite them to games, send messages, chat and video chat as well as comparing achievements, which is all quite similar to the previous dashboard just better looking.
The Video Marketplace menu will greet you with numerous panels showing the latest movies, as well as giving you the option to explore the other videos and access any you have downloaded. Unfortunately, for now at least, it seems that the UK & Europe will not have access to the Netflix services that the US will be greeted with on the launch of NXE, so we will just have to make do with the limited choice of movies that are present at the moment.
Last up on the menu system is the Game Marketplace, here you have access to all of the usual content such as games, add-on’s and free demo’s, however there is one major new addition here and that is the Community Games menu. The Community Games option when launched will provide original content from indie developers, some of which will no doubt be pretty amazing, so look out for these.
Accessibility during gameplay has always been a strong point of the Xbox 360 and this has not changed, a press of the Live button during a game will still bring up the menu you know and love, allowing you access to your mail, friends list, chat and more. However in perhaps what is a nod to the Playstation 3 XMB, Microsoft now also allow you access to Marketplace, and all of the other settings that the full dashboard provides. There is also the addition of a quick launch option, allowing you to quit the game you are currently playing and launch into another immediately.
Finally it is worth mentioning a few of the newer features of the NXE. The first of these is the option to install any game to your hard drive to improve loading times, this does seem to work quite well and there is a noticeable difference. The other major new feature is the Live Party mode, although I was unable to try this out, it promises to allow up to eight people to chat and join games together, this should be interesting but knowing Microsoft it should be a flawless experience.
I have to say that I have been very impressed with the NXE so far, it offers a very easy to use interface and adds a bit of personality to a dashboard that was lacking one before. There is no doubt that this will go down well with everyone come the 19th November. I bet you all can’t wait.
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