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Those of you hoping for a completely different experience or something worth checking out will be pretty disappointed. The best way to sum up the update is what NXE should have been November 2008, along with new and “innovative” ways for Microsoft to take your money. Oh and Avatar Awards. Essentially, besides that it is stuff Microsoft promised a year ago, mainly watching Netflix with friends, and a bit more intuitive experience.
Avatar Awards & Avatar Marketplace
Probably the biggest feature added in the update, it could also be considered the best or the worst depending on how you look at it. Simply going to the Avatar Editor can access both of these things, although it is kind of strange that they do not put it in the general marketplace. Avatar Awards are little badges your avatar character will get depending on task it completes in games. For example, in Guitar Hero 5 if you get an award, not only do you get the award but a guitar “prop” for your Avatar as well. Recently released Arcade title Splosion Man also has some goodies to be unlocked. Many other games in the future are expected to take advantage of the system, with each rewarding you with some kind of item for your Avatar as well.
The Avatar Marketplace is essentially a way for Microsoft to squeeze money out of you until they update the way you are identified online with something else in the future (for example they used to sell Gamerpics, now it is Avatar items). The items available are pretty sparse so far; with a Halo 3 t-shirt for 160 MS points ($1USD) and a props for your avatar such as a 320 MS point ($2USD) remote-control Warthog from the Halo universe that your Avatar will really only be seen used in the Friends tab on the NXE, and on your own Xbox. It is hard to fathom exactly what Microsoft is trying to get at with charging for clothes when the free stuff they have will suffice, but something tells me they will expand upon this with another update sometime next year when Project Natla is released.
Games on Demand
Taking the concept of Xbox Originals and merging them with Xbox 360 titles to fully download as well, the service is hit or miss. The cost of the original Xbox titles has remained the same, and are still seen in MS point denominations, against Xbox 360 titles that have dollar amounts ranging between $19.99-$29.99. Wouldn’t it just make sense to put a price next to all of them if they did it that way? Also, while charging 1200 MS Points ($15USD) is fine thanks to the rarity of finding Xbox games in a chain store such as Gamestop, charing what is charged for many of the 360 titles—full MSRP retail is not. Especially when many of the games can be found in packs with others or many major retailers have the prices of these easy to find games at considerably less.
The initial selection is decent, with games such as Oblivion, Viva Pinata, and Mass Effect, and will likely get much better in the future, but it would have been nice if you could actually rent the games for the same price you normally would at retail chain such as Blockbuster, especially since some of the games can be beaten fairly quickly and the price just isn’t worth it (Assassin’s Creed $30).
Rating Games
One of the great “little things” put into the fray is the ability to rate games—and even games that you have never played. Apple had plenty of problems with this in their App Store for the iPhone/iPod touch platform and remedied this by only allowing you to rate a game or item if you had actually purchased it, something Microsoft obviously didn’t pay attention to and hopefully something they fix in the future. Otherwise, it seems to be working out pretty well. Currently, the three highest rated Arcade titles are Portal, Castle Crashers, and Battlefield 1943, which goes in line with consumer and critical opinion found on the internet so far.
Reorganization and Netflix
Much of this update seems to be reorganization and “the little things” such as having a number next to your gamertag showing you how many years you have been a gold member. Other things include a Welcome Channel that helps explain the changes easier, and a new “Solutions” title on the My Xbox Channel that helps to explain how to easily get to areas and items that before were a little bit more difficult. Community Games has also been renamed Indie Games, leading one to suspect that we are going to see more than just games people made with XNA Studio showing up on Xbox 360. Microsoft claims the update will make the interface faster, and it is apparent that certain parts are faster, but this is also helped by making organizational changes such as displaying achievements with icons instead of a long annoying list, and smaller file sizes for the update than the previous NXE. You will still experience the same Xbox icon with circles spinning around in from time to time, just not as often.
The Netflix features added work a little better than one might hope for, and it is great to have a little “theater” for Avatars to watch shows in.
No Twitter, Facebook, Last.fm, or Zune Video
The biggest disappointment about the update is it really has little impact on what you do on the Xbox now. I’m sure I speak for quite a few gamers when I say it would have been nice to “rt @” to friends something weird you saw pop up on Twitter in the NXE, while posting to your Facebook wall, listening to a hot track your friend shared with you through Last.fm, all while getting ready to watch some movies in full 1080P. Hopefully Microsoft keeps their promise and has all these features out before Christmas. Until then, at least we can be happy it will be easier to get to stuff on the dashboard.
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