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NXE: The Good, The Bad, and Only On 360
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Some of XE’s staff has gotten their hands on the NXE and we have plenty to say about the good, the bad, and the worse that you will only find on Xbox 360.
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The contributors:
THE GOOD
Netflix: The biggest feature added onto the massive NXE update other than Avatars and the new look would have to be Netflix. Microsoft and Netflix are pushing this pretty hard, with Netflix prominently advertising it on their site and Microsoft advertising it on packaging of new Xbox 360 units and Xbox Live cards.
Every person that doesn’t have Netflix can get a free two-week trial, with the only requirement being credit card information. If you cancel at anytime within the two weeks then you aren’t charged a dime. Otherwise, for a measly nine bucks a month you can stream as many movies as you’d like by finding a support movie or TV show on the Netflix site, in addition to physically receiving one DVD disc at a time in the mail. After you put the movie in your queue on your computer your Xbox 360 updates and the movie is displayed on your television set.
While this kind of stuff has been around for PC users and Netflix boxes have been available for TVs who seriously wants to crowd around a PC and watch Superbad together?
Also why go and buy a Netflix box for your TV when the best one made yet is already hooked to your TV? Not only that, but there is a better selection than on the Xbox Live Marketplace, including many Sony made movies thanks to Netflix being a separate service from Xbox Live.
So lets do the math—buying a DVD would cost you at least five dollars so thirty movies times five equals $150, or you could rent a movie for about the same price, or you could pay nine dollars a month, get all the movies and TV shows you like and whatever isn’t available just request by mail and get the DVD. I don’t know what makes more sense?
Avatars: These Xbox Avatars have a little bit of personality in all of them, and have a decent amount of customization. They help to better represent you even more than taking a picture with a Xbox Live Vision camera, and can be displayed online, and you can use your avatar persona in some games already including the new Scene It! game, and XBLA favorite Uno.
Getting to the Avatars is easy, because right after the introduction to the new dashboard, you are greeted with a bunch of Avatars that run up on the screen as a starting point. Here is a quick Easter egg: you can click in the right analog to make your avatar wave on the Avatar Editor or in your Friends list, and use it to also move his head around. If you move it around in a circle he will even go cross-eyed.
Installing full games: What the hell is that noise? Is someone turning downed trees into mulch? No, that’s your Xbox 360 DVD drive. If you are one of the millions that don’t have a newer, quieter Xbox 360 then you probably have to hear this thing wind up and down as it reads the disc. Lucky for you Microsoft is adding the option of installing an entire game disc onto your hard drive. All you do is go to the game information in the dashboard by pressing Y, select “Install to Hard Drive”, and in a few minutes presto! I recently tried this with Mirror’s Edge and not only did I not hear my Xbox 360 wind up and down, being completely silent, but the game even loaded a little faster thanks to the hard drive’s faster transfer speeds. Of course, you have to keep the game in the system while playing so that the system can authenticate that you own the actual disc. It is there as a method of protecting against piracy.
The Navigation: The Xbox 360 dashboard in the past was always pretty decent, but lets be honest; after a few years, tons of updates, and way more content and things to waste time with on the dashboard it has gotten a bit cumbersome.
Trying to find the latest downloadable content for your favorite game but tired of going through the super slow menus and watching the little Xbox 360 icon spin? Well, now everything not only looks better and is easier to navigate, but it is done with an incredibly visual interface that would have the boys at Apple drooling.
Basically you take one part Sony PS3 XMB, two parts Apple TV, add a lot more to it and you have one of the best ways to check out games, movies, and what your friends are doing ever.
The marketplace is cleaner, separating it out into a game marketplace and video marketplace with easy to access icons, My Xbox category has everything about you and your Xbox 360, and your Friends category shows a visual representation of them and their avatar. This is all presented with incredible visuals that are akin to what you might see using the “Coverflow” option on Mac OS X or in Apple iTunes.
Want to get to something quick or in the game? Press the Xbox Guide button will bring up a mini-dash that looks a lot like the old Xbox 360 dashboard. You can even launch a game while you are playing a game. So say you are getting tired of playing Halo 3 with your friends, you can hop right into Portal: Still Alive without even exiting Halo 3.
Xbox Live Party: Xbox Live Party is essentially a voice chat room where up to eight people can chill out, talk about games, or plan out their evening of gaming. They can do it while playing separate games, playing games together, or just from within the Friends tab on the dashboard showing an Avatar representation of each. You can also boot up a game and invite your entire party to play with you with one press of the button, instead of scrolling down your friends list and searching for them. You can video chat with all of them, and eventually you will be able to share photos with each other.
Check out what is bad about the NXE on the next page.
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