NXE seems to be Live

[cppcrusader]

Now, I was signed up for the preview program but was never selected for it. I just fired up the 360 to get in some gaming it started downloading the NXE.

The rest of you may want to fire up yours and see if it starts downloading.

[pomeroy]

Nothing here. Of course, I didn't sign up for the preview. There was a message telling me that NXE is coming, though.

[wyeast]

I too, have received no such prompting.

[Grifter]

I signed up for the preview and still nothing.

[TheSilentDeath]

Now, I was signed up for the preview program but was never selected for it. I just fired up the 360 to get in some gaming it started downloading the NXE.

The rest of you may want to fire up yours and see if it starts downloading.

I actually had my xbox running, albeit with me appearing offline, and went to check a voice message and BAM, New Xbox Experience. Makes me one happy camper.

[cppcrusader]

False alarm, for those that didn't successfully sign up for the preview program at least. I just saw by way of Twitter that they just added everyone who successfully signed up (http://majornelson.com/archive/2008/11/17/sign-up-for-the-preview-you-re-in.aspx).

[Alkanos]

Looks like I got it! I'd signed up, but being silver I figured my chances were pretty slim of getting in. So even when I saw the update start, I figured it was just something in preparation. Imagine my surprise when it said it was downloading the NXE!

The odd thing is that I never received an email about it. Not in my inbox or spam. And it's a hotmail account, so you'd think that it wouldn't get deleted or anything. Now I wonder if I've actually had it for a while now and just didn't notice since I've been playing only PC games recently.

Ahh, I see now that everyone who signed up got it today. Pretty nice gesture by the XBox live folks!

[AgtFox]

Yep, was surprised to see it installing the NXE when I turned on my 360.

[inmostlight]

False alarm, for those that didn't successfully sign up for the preview program at least. I just saw by way of Twitter that they just added everyone who successfully signed up (http://majornelson.com/archive/2008/11/17/sign-up-for-the-preview-you-re-in.aspx).

I can verify that it's updating for me. Sweet!

[Grifter]

Apparently I entered my system ID wrong because I'm still getting nothing.
I don't know why but for some reason that really pisses me off, or maybe I'm just in a crappy mood today... I think I'm going to go kick something, be right back.

[Suave Peanut]

[Boris Grishenko]
Yes, I'm in!
[/Boris Grishenko]

[Iron Past]

Apparently I entered my system ID wrong because I'm still getting nothing.
I don't know why but for some reason that really pisses me off, or maybe I'm just in a crappy mood today... I think I'm going to go kick something, be right back.

Major Nelson said it may take a few hours for everyone to be put on the list, so it may still be coming for you. I forget how many thousands of people signed up for the preview program.

[PathMaster]

Huh, I know they were doing another 10k people, but all of them... Must want to stress the servers a little early in anticipation for Wednesday.

[Haemorrhage]

I just got kicked out of my Gear game to update. Woohoo.

[SPBTooL]

DLing it now.

[MalReynolds]

well i got mine saturday

[KamaItachi]

bastards, every single one of you.

[Aggort]

I just restarted my 360 and the update was there. How friggin sweet. Pretty nice surprise for everyone who signed up but hadn't gotten in.

[divinechaos]

I wanna make an HD Mii!

[Grifter]

Major Nelson said it may take a few hours for everyone to be put on the list, so it may still be coming for you. I forget how many thousands of people signed up for the preview program.

I know, I really don't care as much as a made it sound it's just been one of those obnoxious days where everything is annoying. I also just realized it's the 17th so everyone else will get it late tomorrow night, for some reason I was thinking it wasn't out until next week.

I'm gonna go kick something else... be right back.:D

[Sandman]

Nxe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[BLeeP]

I like it. I wish they could make some more impressive themes, but maybe that will come with time. Everything is much faster, not quite XMB fast, but almost. Netflix Streaming works like a dream.

[MalReynolds]

canada gets no netflix i guess?

[BLeeP]

canada gets not netflix i guess?

:eek:

*cough* Sorry, I just had to take a moment of silence there for our friend English. :p

I thought it was already known that Canada didn't get cool video stuff.

[MalReynolds]

worst is that i dont check over what i type so lol

[BLeeP]

worst is that i dont check over what i type so lol

Keep doing it. It adds character.

:D

[Squidbot]

worst is that i dont check over what i type so lol

We'd never have guessed ;)

[Telefrog]

Huh, I know they were doing another 10k people, but all of them... Must want to stress the servers a little early in anticipation for Wednesday.

Actually, if you think about it, this is a pretty smart way to not stress the servers too much for the rollout. The way they're doing it now, it's actually more of a gradual rollout, rather than have everyone under the sun hit the NXE download server all at once on Wednesday.

[Dark Prince]

Bah, I signed up and didn't get it...granted I signed up yesterday...but still. I want to feel special for once. :(

Turned on my 360 this morning only to get prompted to nothing except a friend request. =/

[Haemorrhage]

:eek:

*cough* Sorry, I just had to take a moment of silence there for our friend English. :p

I thought it was already known that Canada didn't get cool video stuff.

He's a Newfie, they don't speak English out there. :p

[Squidbot]

I'm going to stay off Live for a few days, just until I get a feel for how the launch has gone. I, possibly irrationally, fear a bricked box.

[TrackZero]

Kinda makes me regret not signing up for that program. Ah well, it's out tomorrow anyways.

[TrackZero]

canada gets no netflix i guess?

Nah. Netflix chickened out from coming to Canada when Blockbuster had plans to already cover that type of service here. Then Blockbuster backed out, and there's a gaping void where that product should be. There's rumors that they'll finally come out here this year, but nothing's happened so far.

[TrackZero]

He's a Newfie, they don't speak English out there. :p

Hey now, I'm half-newf. ;)

[NoName]

Kinda makes me regret not signing up for that program. Ah well, it's out tomorrow anyways.

Pretty much, I think I'll survive a day :). Still, it's fun to get things early, even if it's for a day.

[Mdot]

Completely missed the sign-up period for this. Disappointing, I'm usually right on top of these things. Oh well, one day won't kill me.

[itchyeyes]

Got it here. I like it a lot. It's much faster than the previous dashboard, and Netflix and game installs (the two biggest features for me) work flawlessly. In fact Netflix movies seem to buffer noticeably faster than they do through my browser, even with my 360 being hooked up via WiFi.

[Mike Kelehan]

I'm going to stay off Live for a few days, just until I get a feel for how the launch has gone. I, possibly irrationally, fear a bricked box.

If there were bricking issues, one of the tens of thousands of preview members would've spoken up.

[cppcrusader]

I find the update is worth it solely for finally being able to properly browse the marketplace.

Existing themes don't display as well as I'd like. It'd be nice if it would let you select which picture from the theme you want to display.

[fitbabits]

Turned on my 360. Red ring. Again. Turned it off, then back on again. SUCCESS! NXE downloaded and installed.

[LarsenNET]

Have to wait until after work :(

[Mike Kelehan]

Existing themes don't display as well as I'd like. It'd be nice if it would let you select which picture from the theme you want to display.

Or, perhaps, if it randomly switched to a new picture from within your theme as you pressed up and down to go to different categories.

[Squidbot]

If there were bricking issues, one of the tens of thousands of preview members would've spoken up.

I know, I'm just paranoid :o

[muddi900]

Nah. Netflix chickened out from coming to Canada when Blockbuster had plans to already cover that type of service here. Then Blockbuster backed out, and there's a gaping void where that product should be. There's rumors that they'll finally come out here this year, but nothing's happened so far.

From what I've read, movie studios are the assholes of the american entertainment industry!

Especially concerning international licensing!

[Haemorrhage]

Well my impressions for the NXE so far are mixed. There are definitely many new improvement, however there are a few weird interface choices which bother me.

I really like the new quick launch option and the new 8 player party system. The new instant load for arcade games is also dream come true.

The things that bother me are is that the NXE requires much more scrolling and button presses to access the same info as the previous dashboard:

1) The dashboard boots to the "Spotlight menu" and not the "My Xbox" menu. Easy for me to get around, but very unintuitive for casual users like my wife or kids.

2) The guide now only shows 6 friends at a time. It shows more info, but crappy for quickly glancing at who is online.

3) Streaming movies/video/pictures/music requires about 2-3 more button presses.

I think a lot of these interface annoyances could be alleviated if they gave us the option to reorganize or customize the menus.

[Psykoboy2]

I think a lot of these interface annoyances could be alleviated if they gave us the option to reorganize or customize the menus.

And who's to say they won't give us that option down the line? I mean, those blades went under plenty of revamps over the time they were out so I expect we'll see plenty of changes with this interface over time.

[Haemorrhage]

And who's to say they won't give us that option down the line? I mean, those blades went under plenty of revamps over the time they were out so I expect we'll see plenty of changes with this interface over time.

That's what I am hoping for. :p

Overall I much prefer the NXE, but I think it is unusual that it now takes longer to access the important info that you want, your games and friends.

[Mike Kelehan]

3) Streaming movies/video/pictures/music requires about 2-3 more button presses.


...unless you access them right from the guide, which is more or less the same as the old dash. Remember that the guide is the replacement for the old dash, and the new dash is an entirely new beast.

[itchyeyes]

The guide now only shows 6 friends at a time. It shows more info, but crappy for quickly glancing at who is online.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you can still pull up your friends in list form by hitting the guide button.

[Inspector Fowler]

Hey guys.

Those of you who have tried the Netflix streaming thing - could you tell me what your average connection speed is? Not what your ISP says, but your average one?

I have very mixed results with Netflix streaming. Sometimes movies stream perfectly, sometimes it says they want an HOUR buffer (shit, guys, in an hour of work I make enough to BUY a movie), sometimes it buffers for a minute or two.

When I test it, my connection speed varies between around 3.5 Mbps and 4.5 Mbps (and this is from Comcast, where I am supposed to be getting 8 Mbps service!). I am just wondering if I can expect the same "flawless" performance you guys are getting - my Xbox Live downloads tend to be quite snappy, but I don't know exactly how they're routing this data, soooo....

[itchyeyes]

Hey guys.

Those of you who have tried the Netflix streaming thing - could you tell me what your average connection speed is? Not what your ISP says, but your average one?

I have very mixed results with Netflix streaming. Sometimes movies stream perfectly, sometimes it says they want an HOUR buffer (shit, guys, in an hour of work I make enough to BUY a movie), sometimes it buffers for a minute or two.

When I test it, my connection speed varies between around 3.5 Mbps and 4.5 Mbps (and this is from Comcast, where I am supposed to be getting 8 Mbps service!). I am just wondering if I can expect the same "flawless" performance you guys are getting - my Xbox Live downloads tend to be quite snappy, but I don't know exactly how they're routing this data, soooo....
I'm in Denver and on Comcast, and although I haven't measured my speeds I'm not having any trouble streaming. Is it actually taking an hour to buffer or are you seeing that message and turning it off in frustration? With the browser version oftentimes that estimate is way off and a movie that they say will take 30 min to buffer will actually go in about a minute or two. Also, do you have any other machines hooked up to your router? Make sure you're not doing any heavy downloading while you're trying to stream video to the Xbox.

At 3.5-4.5 Mbps you shouldn't have any trouble streaming video, especially since Netflix automatically adjusts the video quality to ensure consistent streaming.

[Yeti2005]

Well my impressions for the NXE so far are mixed. There are definitely many new improvement, however there are a few weird interface choices which bother me.

I really like the new quick launch option and the new 8 player party system. The new instant load for arcade games is also dream come true.

The things that bother me are is that the NXE requires much more scrolling and button presses to access the same info as the previous dashboard:

1) The dashboard boots to the "Spotlight menu" and not the "My Xbox" menu. Easy for me to get around, but very unintuitive for casual users like my wife or kids.

2) The guide now only shows 6 friends at a time. It shows more info, but crappy for quickly glancing at who is online.

3) Streaming movies/video/pictures/music requires about 2-3 more button presses.

I think a lot of these interface annoyances could be alleviated if they gave us the option to reorganize or customize the menus.

I think MS strategy was for the Guide button to be for the "experience user" who want to access their friends, games, etc quickly. The rest of NXE is for the "casual user" who just wants an easy navigation even if it takes longer. The other part of the strategy is the redesign will allow easier future updates.

[Aggort]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you can still pull up your friends in list form by hitting the guide button.

Yea you can, and from the dash you can also just hit A Button once you scroll to the friends.

I thought you could make the NXE boot to a different blade, btw. Still, even on the old dash, you'd have to scroll down to get a game started. I do like the button shortcuts a good bit for quickly starting games, especially ones that have been installed.

The guide is very slick though. I love how much more information is right at your fingertips. For example, when you boot up a game, where the game info is, like achievements, their is a button at the bottom to take you directly to the downloads for the game, but right from there it tells you what's available. It's like operating the whole old dash no matter where your at, love it.

[Sl1pstream]

I hate you all.

*waits for tomorrow*

[Re3x]

Is it going up tonight at 12:00am?

[Haemorrhage]

...unless you access them right from the guide, which is more or less the same as the old dash. Remember that the guide is the replacement for the old dash, and the new dash is an entirely new beast.

But it is not. I have to scroll up and over to videos, which is now not intuitive in the NXE. I have to select source every time (in the old dashboard it remembers your previous selection). Sort thought my folders (same as before). And finally when I select the movie, which now pops up a new window asking me if I actually want to play the movie I just selected to play. :mad:

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you can still pull up your friends in list form by hitting the guide button.

The friends list in the Guide is the one I am referring to. In the NXE you can only view 6 friends at a time. In the old dashboard it was about 10 or so.

[MalReynolds]

but 12am PST or EST

[Mike Kelehan]

But it is not. I have to scroll up and over to videos, which is now not intuitive in the NXE. I have to select source every time (in the old dashboard it remembers your previous selection). Sort thought my folders (same as before). And finally when I select the movie, which now pops up a new window asking me if I actually want to play the movie I just selected to play. :mad:

I'll give you the source thing, although I do see why they did it. I had several friends call me up asking how to change the video source with the current firmware, never seeing the change source button. But you don't need to go up and over with the guide; you just go over to the media blade, as before, then down to videos, as before.

[MachEnergy]

I can't believe I'm this excited for a new OS, but I really am. Half of my excitement when purchasing a new console is going through every inch of the menus. For the first time that I can think of, I'm getting to do that for free!

Tomorrow....

[Haemorrhage]

I'll give you the source thing, although I do see why they did it. I had several friends call me up asking how to change the video source with the current firmware, never seeing the change source button. But you don't need to go up and over with the guide; you just go over to the media blade, as before, then down to videos, as before.

I understand the source change, but it would be nice to have the option. My point is that the Xbox doesn't boot to the "My Xbox" section (the most important section in the entire NXE), it boots to the annoying "Spotlight" advertisement section. This is confusing for casual users. My wife was like, "Where the hell do I go now, this is stupid, why did you download this?" Isn't this supposed to be more intuitive for "casual gamer/users".

The NXE should boot to the "My Xbox" section, like the old dashboard booted to the Live blade. Why it doesn't baffles me.

[MachEnergy]

The NXE should boot to the "My Xbox" section, like the old dashboard booted to the Live blade. Why it doesn't baffles me.

While I haven't used the system yet and agree with your statement, I think it is worth remembering how long the 360 was out before they added the option to even BOOT to the dash. It used to always run the disc if there was one in the tray.

I'm sure that with a new interface, they are expecting to get a lot of complaints about what went wrong. It would be nice if they had an easy method of making these suggestions directly to them.

[Mike Kelehan]

The NXE should boot to the "My Xbox" section, like the old dashboard booted to the Live blade. Why it doesn't baffles me.

It doesn't because they want to make sure that everyone knows what's new. As I said in another NXE thread, the guide is about quickly loading your content, and the dash is about discovering new content. By making it the default, they make sure everyone knows when an XBLA game comes out, when a Primetime event is scheduled, et al. If it were anywhere other than default, way less people would know.

I certainly don't mind pressing up once, but I guess there wouldn't be harm in making it an option to default there. It just wouldn't be the default option, so most people would start there.

[fitbabits]

I like it so far, but I have one minor niggle - the Blades system that's used when you press the Guide button seems awkwardly archaic compared to the rest of the hotness NXE offers.

[Mike Kelehan]

I like it so far, but I have one minor niggle - the Blades system that's used when you press the Guide button seems awkwardly archaic compared to the rest of the hotness NXE offers.

The new guide is honestly my favorite part. It's the blades, but lighter, faster, and accessible anywhere. You can do anything at any time, and I love the elegant simplicity. It's everything it needs to be and nothing more.

[muddi900]

Am I the only one who made the XMB comparison?(in the other thread)

Wierd!

[Haemorrhage]

Am I the only one who made the XMB comparison?(in the other thread)

Wierd!

That's because I think it is nothing like the XMB. :p

[Press Ninja]

Bah, still nothing for me yet... Damn yooous all.

[Victorvonviolence]

Need...more...hard drive space.

Saying that, I cannot beileve how much quieter fallout is for me now. It really is unreal, honestly the dash is far more noisy than the actual game.

[TrackZero]

I understand the source change, but it would be nice to have the option. My point is that the Xbox doesn't boot to the "My Xbox" section (the most important section in the entire NXE), it boots to the annoying "Spotlight" advertisement section. This is confusing for casual users. My wife was like, "Where the hell do I go now, this is stupid, why did you download this?" Isn't this supposed to be more intuitive for "casual gamer/users".

The NXE should boot to the "My Xbox" section, like the old dashboard booted to the Live blade. Why it doesn't baffles me.

Haemorrhage, quick question, are you a Mac user? ;)

[Haemorrhage]

Haemorrhage, quick question, are you a Mac user? ;)

Nope, Vista baby!!! :)

[rinichanraar]

I'm not even going to bother to check right now because I know I'm not going to have it yet.

Hey now, I'm half-newf. ;)

Whenever you talk about Canada, I remember this one exchange we had at PAX:

"I enjoy listening to you say 'about.'"
"Aboot."
"About."
"Aboot."
"About."
"I can't hear any difference. It sounds exactly the same to me!"

Turned on my 360. Red ring. Again. Turned it off, then back on again. SUCCESS! NXE downloaded and installed.

Oh god, that must have been scary. Glad it worked (eventually)!

[fitbabits]

Oh god, that must have been scary. Glad it worked (eventually)!
You'd think it would be scary, and ordinarily it would be, but my 360 seems to have taken on a life of its own recently - red-ringing one minute, fine the next; garbled display one minute, fine the next, etc. It's almost like a game in and of itself. I've given up on Microsoft support actually fixing it for me.

[muddi900]

That's because I think it is nothing like the XMB. :p

Oh, its exactly like the XMB. Instead of a horizontal list of menus, you have a vertical list, and menu items go horizontal, instead of vertical. Its just the cross media bar, except it doesn't looks like so. its the only thing Sony has done right this gen.

I said it in the other thread; the XMB is the best interface for a controller.Now, Microsoft agrees with me.

No, Microsoft did not rip-off sony. They just took the best aspects of a functional interface and applied it to their platform.
/flameshield

You'd think it would be scary, and ordinarily it would be, but my 360 seems to have taken on a life of its own recently - red-ringing one minute, fine the next; garbled display one minute, fine the next, etc. It's almost like a game in and of itself. I've given up on Microsoft support actually fixing it for me.

Say you've got RROD, they'll fix it regardless.

[rinichanraar]

You'd think it would be scary, and ordinarily it would be, but my 360 seems to have taken on a life of its own recently - red-ringing one minute, fine the next; garbled display one minute, fine the next, etc. It's almost like a game in and of itself. I've given up on Microsoft support actually fixing it for me.

Well, at least it works sometimes. That's good to hear. Better than not working at all, I guess!

Say you've got RROD, they'll fix it regardless.

You must've missed out on his stories about customer service at MS. He's already sent it back like three times. It appears that he's been blacklisted or something. :(

[Haemorrhage]

Oh, its exactly like the XMB. Instead of a horizontal list of menus, you have a vertical list, and menu items go horizontal, instead of vertical. Its just the cross media bar, except it doesn't looks like so. its the only thing Sony has done right this gen.

I said it in the other thread; the XMB is the best interface for a controller.Now, Microsoft agrees with me.

No, Microsoft did not rip-off sony. They just took the best aspects of a functional interface and applied it to their platform.
/flameshield

I actually prefer the XMB for navigating the interface because it is much more intuitive (I know I am beating that word to death) and smoother .

I agree, they share the horizontal and vertical interface design, but how they actually implement it is much different. With the "My Xbox" bar as you scroll across to "My video", "My Music" etc, you cannot seamlessly scroll up and down through the content like the XMB. You have to go through several layers via the "A" and "Y" buttons to access the content.

The NXE relies much more heavily on layers than the XMB, that is why I feel it differs. For better or worse, each design has its pros and cons.

[itchyeyes]

Oh, its exactly like the XMB. Instead of a horizontal list of menus, you have a vertical list, and menu items go horizontal, instead of vertical. Its just the cross media bar, except it doesn't looks like so. its the only thing Sony has done right this gen.
In function, yes they're more or less the same. But then again, the previous blades design had the same left-right, up-down navigation as well if you think about it. It's the presentation that sets the NXE apart from the XMB. Information as to what you're looking at in the XMB is extremely limited, oftentimes denoted by nothing more than a single obscure icon. In contrast, the NXE is very information rich, and it's quite simple to know exactly where you're at in the navigation process.

[Bone]

The new guide is honestly my favorite part. It's the blades, but lighter, faster, and accessible anywhere. You can do anything at any time, and I love the elegant simplicity. It's everything it needs to be and nothing more.
I'm with you. The beauty is its speed and simplicity especially compared to the old, laggy blades. I don't mind the new dashboard, it's cute, but the Guide button is now the most important navigation tool, as it should be.

Oh, its exactly like the XMB. Instead of a horizontal list of menus, you have a vertical list, and menu items go horizontal, instead of vertical. Its just the cross media bar, except it doesn't looks like so. its the only thing Sony has done right this gen.

I said it in the other thread; the XMB is the best interface for a controller.Now, Microsoft agrees with me.

No, Microsoft did not rip-off sony. They just took the best aspects of a functional interface and applied it to their platform.
/flameshield
I don't think either of them can lay claim to what is essentially a series of tabs with drop-down menus. Changing the look doesn't change the core mechanic, which isn't all that innovative, just easy to use.

[Food Nipple]

If this new update is supposed to be more appealing/understandable for casual users, then MS has messed this up big time.

The system still has the same sorts of interface quirks and redundancies that made the old UI cumbersome over time. MS hasn't learned anything about putting together a smarter dashboard, but at least they have learned how to make it prettier.

There's a bunch of features which are great improvements, but this is really a situation where it's two steps forward and one step back. I'm glad for the progress, but I'm disappointed to see that MS hasn't fixed a lot of the fundamental problems of the old dash.

[Variable Gear]

I'm with that guy that posted above me.

[cppcrusader]

Well, I just had my first instance of being screwed over by the NXE. I hadn't downloaded the Left 4 Dead demo yet and apparently the only way to get it was via a banner ad in the old dashboard. No such ad here in the NXE, and no demo listed at all in the marketplace.

[AgtFox]

Well, I just had my first instance of being screwed over by the NXE. I hadn't downloaded the Left 4 Dead demo yet and apparently the only way to get it was via a banner ad in the old dashboard. No such ad here in the NXE, and no demo listed at all in the marketplace.
I'm not sure, but it could have been timed like the Steam demo was.

[Haemorrhage]

If this new update is supposed to be more appealing/understandable for casual users, then MS has messed this up big time.

The system still has the same sorts of interface quirks and redundancies that made the old UI cumbersome over time. MS hasn't learned anything about putting together a smarter dashboard, but at least they have learned how to make it prettier.

There's a bunch of features which are great improvements, but this is really a situation where it's two steps forward and one step back. I'm glad for the progress, but I'm disappointed to see that MS hasn't fixed a lot of the fundamental problems of the old dash.

Its funny how Food can much better sum up in one post what I was yammering on about in 10.

[cppcrusader]

I'm not sure, but it could have been timed like the Steam demo was.

Hmm, well my brother was able to access the download via that banner earlier. I guess I'll just have to wait until I go home next week and hope the demo still works on his to try it.

[yeti]

Well, I just had my first instance of being screwed over by the NXE. I hadn't downloaded the Left 4 Dead demo yet and apparently the only way to get it was via a banner ad in the old dashboard. No such ad here in the NXE, and no demo listed at all in the marketplace.

Looks like an error on MS's part. There's a dirty great big spot for it on the "My Spotlight", it even says download the demo, however CCP is right, it's not there.:eek:

Ah well, it's out on Friday, just buy it! It's awesome. :)

[Psykoboy2]

Ah well, it's out on Friday, just buy it! It's awesome. :)

I must live in the future!!

I picked mine up today.

[Variable Gear]

I must live in the future!!

I picked mine up today.
Maybe you just live in the US. The European release date for Left 4 Dead falls three days after the American launch.

[Suave Peanut]

I really must say, playing games without the disc drive blowing me away makes for a fantastic experience.

[Maskatron]

All I know is Netflix is slick as hell. I really like how some stuff is in HD even when it isn't on Blu-Ray (like 30 Rock for example).

What I don't like how there are numerous selections that are available to stream over your computer, but not on the 360. I didn't know that this would be the case. edit: oh fuck off, Sony.

[muddi900]

I actually prefer the XMB for navigating the interface because it is much more intuitive (I know I am beating that word to death) and smoother .

I agree, they share the horizontal and vertical interface design, but how they actually implement it is much different. With the "My Xbox" bar as you scroll across to "My video", "My Music" etc, you cannot seamlessly scroll up and down through the content like the XMB. You have to go through several layers via the "A" and "Y" buttons to access the content.

The NXE relies much more heavily on layers than the XMB, that is why I feel it differs. For better or worse, each design has its pros and cons.

That's the issue of scalability. MS didn't have scalability in mind when they made NXE. Or at least it seems like it.

Maybe I should rephrase: I think the menu navigation is very similar to the XMB.

[thomas]

19th at 8pm and still no god damn update

[Evewalker]

19th at 8pm and still no god damn update

What the hell are you talking about? The update is going live at 2:00 AM PDT/5:00 AM EST like every other update.

[rinichanraar]

What the hell are you talking about? The update is going live at 2:00 AM PDT/5:00 AM EST like every other update.

I'm assuming he's in the UK or something.

[Evewalker]

I had thought the same thing, but it's 9:00 AM in the UK right now. :) I get the feeling it's going to be rolled out over the course of the morning, though, so we'll all be getting it at different times.

[BLeeP]

I just found this Quick Launch feature in the guide that I find pretty neat. Let's say, for instance, that I'm playing Megaman 9 and I get pissed about some boss fight or something. I might want to switch over to the greatest game ever made, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, in order to calm my nerves. I hit the guide button, hit quick launch, select Symphony of the Night, and I'm kicking Dracula's ass.

Easy peasy.

[Murtaug]

I really must say, playing games without the disc drive blowing me away makes for a fantastic experience.

I was actually quite surprised by how big of a difference I noticed too. I will not be installing every game I play, but for titles I know I will be spending more than a few days on (Fallout 3, Fable 2, etc) I will definitely throw them on to the HD.

I had installed World at War to test it out, and while I could not notice the difference during gameplay, when that thing hit a loading screen and all was quiet, I actually found myself glancing over at the system wondering if it had locked up or something because of how quiet it was.

[Orca]

If you can't get NXE to download, turn your 360 off and on, or do the Test Network Connection. Should be up for everyone now.

[KamaItachi]

Does it speak ill of me that I quite enjoyed making my Avatar?

[Squidbot]

http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/SquidBot/avatar-body.png


OH HAI!

[BLeeP]

Anyone who is up needs to download the new Xbox Community Game (you guys have been checking these out, right? ^_~) "Weapon of Choice".

Quite possible the greatest thing ever created.

[yeti]

I'd check it out, if MS allowed me to :( I'd also like to party with photos :(

[Rock Bandit]

http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/x Rock Bandit x/avatar-body.png

Oh hey whats going on in here guys?

[thomas]

I'm assuming he's in the UK or something.
Its penal colony.

[Purple Santa]

I have to wait till tonight. I'm at class now and wasn't on early enough to get it earlier if it was up and running...so bummed. I might have to fight Ms. Claus for the tv since she may be taking a crack at Animal Crossing...

[MachEnergy]

For some reason, I expected it to roll out at midnight, EST. No dice. Oh well. Good to hear others have been updating successfully.

[Lutheran]

I got it to download to me at 5:30am EST , after doing the test connection trick. Netflix is getting hammered right now so I can't set that up yet as it doesn't accept the codes from the 360 right now. Where are these community games located? I am now at work but I don't remember seeing this on my system , then again I only spent about 10 minutes fooling around and making an avatar.

[muddi900]

http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/muddi900/avatar-body.png

[BabyJesus]

Got it this morning.. Only got to play around for a few minutes, as I was already late for work but it looked and felt slick as snot. Speed is much nicer, the last update to the old dashboard seemed to slow things down and make the system hitch a bit, like when you started a download and opened up your friends stats. Hopefully that is better now.

[bapenguin]

I got it to download to me at 5:30am EST , after doing the test connection trick. Netflix is getting hammered right now so I can't set that up yet as it doesn't accept the codes from the 360 right now. Where are these community games located? I am now at work but I don't remember seeing this on my system , then again I only spent about 10 minutes fooling around and making an avatar.

They are under Marketplace->Community Games

[MachEnergy]

Anyone who is up needs to download the new Xbox Community Game (you guys have been checking these out, right? ^_~) "Weapon of Choice".

Quite possible the greatest thing ever created.

Can you describe this game? This is the first I've heard of it.

[Haemorrhage]

Can you describe this game? This is the first I've heard of it.

Think Contra.

dNaxdG2m60w

[cppcrusader]

http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/cppcrusader/avatar-body.png

[Shadowstorm]

How do I pull up my avatar?

This update is sweet.

[cppcrusader]

How do I pull up my avatar?

This update is sweet.

h t t p://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/yourgamertaghere/avatar-body.png

[Haemorrhage]

How do I pull up my avatar?

This update is sweet.

Go to xbox.com, under "My Xbox" go to "Manage Profile". Then you will see a lovely picture of you avatar. Right click on him/her to "copy image location". Then paste in your favorite forum.

[Maskatron]

http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/maskatron23/avatar-body.png

[GigaFuzz]

http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/GigaFuzz/avatar-body.png

Not as much choice as I'd like, but good enough for now.

Edit: Finally seems to be working.

[JayVe]

Hey there guys

http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/JayVe/avatar-body.png

Avatars are cool, but don't offer nearly the level of creativity that Miis do. I suppose Microsoft wants to control a lot of the creativity so they can charge you for new clothes/accessories/body parts.

[Shadowstorm]

http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/Shadowstorrrrm/avatar-body.png

Har har har.

[bapenguin]

Hey there guys


Avatars are cool, but don't offer nearly the level of creativity that Miis do. I suppose Microsoft wants to control a lot of the creativity so they can charge you for new clothes/accessories/body parts.

Yes, but Avatars offer hands, feet and necks free of charge.

[Bone]

If this new update is supposed to be more appealing/understandable for casual users, then MS has messed this up big time.

The system still has the same sorts of interface quirks and redundancies that made the old UI cumbersome over time. MS hasn't learned anything about putting together a smarter dashboard, but at least they have learned how to make it prettier.

There's a bunch of features which are great improvements, but this is really a situation where it's two steps forward and one step back. I'm glad for the progress, but I'm disappointed to see that MS hasn't fixed a lot of the fundamental problems of the old dash.
I guess I disagree completely. All you have to do now, to do anything, is hit the big Green X. The dashboard has extra information, but to me it makes a lot of sense to have the most condensed, important stuff accessible from the controller on its own dedicated button.

[JayVe]

Yes, but Avatars offer hands, feet and necks free of charge.

I've seen hands, feet and necks on my Mii's. Granted, they are wrapped in little spheres, but I thought that was for sanitary reasons. "Individually wrapped for your protection", and all.

[JayVe]

I love the avatars on the friends list for the same reason I love user images on Colony of Gamers. I'm a visual kind of guy. The more I can visually associate with someone, the more I'll remember them. I can easily associate an image with someone, much more than I can associate a gamertag with someone.

It is damn easy to remember Rock Bandit = Kick Ass Sideburns

[Nerdious]

My NXE experience has been pretty bad so far.

I got the update on monday, I was in the last group of signups to be let in. Cool made my avatar, it looks like ass.

Now, time to explore NXE. Wait, the marketplace isn't here and it's not letting me access it. 3 days, no marketplace. So all I have from this update is an avatar, and a dashboard that's totally crashtastic. It takes a minute to load up my profile, if I view a friends profile from the dash, there's another crashed minute. If i bring up the guide and go to the marketplace, it just goes back to the front of the dashboard.

So I begin to think after all of the good things I've read that it's just me. So I go to my second xbox, and it won't even let me download the update! Just fails at it.

Dammit, and I was sooooo excited.

[SPBTooL]

http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/SPBTooL/avatar-body.png

If this new update is supposed to be more appealing/understandable for casual users, then MS has messed this up big time.

The system still has the same sorts of interface quirks and redundancies that made the old UI cumbersome over time. MS hasn't learned anything about putting together a smarter dashboard, but at least they have learned how to make it prettier.

There's a bunch of features which are great improvements, but this is really a situation where it's two steps forward and one step back. I'm glad for the progress, but I'm disappointed to see that MS hasn't fixed a lot of the fundamental problems of the old dash.Can you be specific? What Quirks and redundancies are you referring to? My wife had no problems using the new dash and she is hardly ever on the 360. When she was done making an avatar she jumped into the new dash and never had any problems finding/discovering what she wanted. she never asked any sort of interface/navigation questions.

I had more of an issue finding things than she did as I was looking for specific settings or features that are now moved. Some thing are not where I thought they would be because they are accessible only through the guide or dash and not both. For a power user that felt a bit strange at first.

[JayVe]

I had more of an issue finding things than she did as I was looking for specific settings or features that are now moved. Some thing are not where I thought they would be because they are accessible only through the guide or dash and not both. For a power user that felt a bit strange at first.

Exactly. For those already trained in the old system, we'll need a short adjustment moment to find things. For new users, like those that will be plugging in the 360 for the first time, the new interface is much easier to use. It is more friendly, and intuitive.

I like how context-sensitive button presses are clearly labeled on screen as well.

Kudos to Microsoft for creating an interface that not only is functional, but stylish as well. This marks the first time a home console has even undergone such a system-wide interface change, and the results are fabulous. Not perfect, but far better than what the competition is offering.

[SPBTooL]

Wow! the posabilities of what an NXE theme can be just when way up. I just saw these in a Joystiq post about the Fable II announcement getting pushed back (http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/19/microsoft-quiets-good-fable-2-announcement/).
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2008/11/fable-2-nxe-theme-1.jpg
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2008/11/fable-2-nxe-theme-3.jpg
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2008/11/fable-2-nxe-theme-2.jpg

On that note. I would like to comment on the fact that IO can not customize my theme to use different floors and doodads from other themes like I could in the old dash. Me old wallpaper just doesn't work as well with the default stuff.

[Food Nipple]

I guess I disagree completely. All you have to do now, to do anything, is hit the big Green X. The dashboard has extra information, but to me it makes a lot of sense to have the most condensed, important stuff accessible from the controller on its own dedicated button.

I think the increased guide functionality is great, my beef is mostly with the dashboard, which I find to be laid out poorly.

I think it's confusing that there's two achievement menus, one in the guide and one on the dashboard and only one of them lets you delete zero-point-achievement games.

I was also confused by the XNA community games, which aren't placed in a intelligent place. There's an ad on the dashboard for them, which caught my eye immediately (as a good ad should), yet clicking on it didn't bring me to a list of these games, instead you see a blurb about them and a video of people at a party playing them, but the actual games themselves? They're hidden two nodes deeper in a different menu.

The biggest problem with the old dashboard was that it was cumbersome to find something in a list of 10 or more items. I thought that the UI of the NXE was supposed to fix this. Picking out familiar box art is much easier and quicker than hunting through an alphabetical list. Unfortunately, unless you're one of the top 10 XNA games, you don't get this treatment. All the rest of the games are buried two nodes deeper in an old fashioned alphabetical list. There's also a "most popular" button that expands the number of titles in the visual list from 10 to 20. Why even have this button in the first place? Just show me 20 by defualt, 20 is the default in the video marketplace, why is it 10 for XNA games?

I feel bad for the 8 out of 28 launch XNA games that weren't getting the same red carpet treatment as the others. All these guys must be excited to have their pet projects visible to millions of people, but I'm suspecting most casual users (who this update is supposed to target) won't find them because it's not intuitive to even find the list of games. And if they do find them, 10 of those games will get significantly more traffic because they're much more visible than the others.

Then there's the graphical friend list, which is a joke. That thing is so cumbersome it's useless, and was only included because you'd otherwise never see your friends' avatars. The list is functionally broken. First, I can only see 5 of 100 entries at a time, which means it takes forever to cycle through the list of friends. For comparison, the video marketplace shows 14 entries on screen at a time. The entire point of the cascading menus is that it's supposed to show more items from a list on screen at once, not less. No one will ever use this friend list unless they're looking at avatars, and it's a poor replacement for the "Friends playing now" feature of the old dashboard.

The old friend list in the guide had the "add a friend" option as the first option on the list, which was the correct place to put it if you value convenience. On the new avatar list, it's the last entry, because they value aesthetics over convenience, and I have to hop through the other 99 entries to get to it. It's actually a step backward.

That's not to say there aren't things I love about the new update, and if I were to mention those, this post would be three times as long as it is. My point is that the visual overhaul was supposed to ameliorate some of the functional shortcomings of the old approach, as well as appeal to casuals. The problem is that it does neither, it's too confusing, redundant, and convoluted for casual users to get any benefits, and hardcores like you and I will just use the guide button, because it's far more efficient than the GUI, and in some cases (like deleting games from you achievement list), it's impossible to do otherwise.

[Veregon]

http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/Veregon/avatar-body.png
Sometimes I'm so cool it hurts.

[Bone]

Exactly. For those already trained in the old system, we'll need a short adjustment moment to find things. For new users, like those that will be plugging in the 360 for the first time, the new interface is much easier to use. It is more friendly, and intuitive.

I like how context-sensitive button presses are clearly labeled on screen as well.

Kudos to Microsoft for creating an interface that not only is functional, but stylish as well. This marks the first time a home console has even undergone such a system-wide interface change, and the results are fabulous. Not perfect, but far better than what the competition is offering.
I was genuinely overwhelmed at the original interface when I bought my 360. Over time, I learned it, but this is a huge improvement. Part of it is there is so much to see. Remember that when you first turn on a new Xbox you have all those videos about how to use your new system. And now those will be front and center.

Food: I'll respond to your long post after lunch! :)

[Norse]

Has anyone tried the Kefling game yet? The inclusion of avatars in the game looks like a last minute thing as it's quite stiff. The game itself looked promising, and you can kick keflings :)

I've been using the NXE since the first preview and I have to say I love it. An interface will never be perfect, but this is a huge step in the right direction.

I tried the Xbox.com marketplace just now, but it doesn't seem to be up yet.

[Iron Past]

Lets see...

http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/iron%20past/avatar-body.png

[Norse]

I knew Kelegacy was a carny ;)

http://www.planetespen.com/cog/carny.jpg

[Wilkz07]

Is there a way to set the 'my xbox' section as what you see first? I don't see why I should have to see the Spotlight section first as i'm not usually connected to Live nor need to access marketplace first.

[Psykoboy2]

Those premium themes are going to kill me.

Unless they release one for Burnout Paradise...then I'll never buy another one.

Until, of, course, they release one for Watchmen.

[Psykoboy2]

Is there a way to set the 'my xbox' section as what you see first? I don't see why I should have to see the Spotlight section first as i'm not usually connected to Live nor need to access marketplace first.

Not yet, I don't think there is. For people like us, it's like walking into a GameStop and seeing nothing but the counter so you can pick up your stuff, or the shelves so you can grab what you want.

For everyone else, it's all the ads, sale offers, and, essentially, noise that they see. It's their hook, it's their selling point to make the casual's aware of shit they can buy, play, or look at.

[cppcrusader]

I do have a new minor annoyance with the new layout. The page for the HD drive is way down the line. I can probably get to it through the guide quickly, but like I said, its just a minor annoyance.

[bapenguin]

Then there's the graphical friend list, which is a joke. That thing is so cumbersome it's useless, and was only included because you'd otherwise never see your friends' avatars. The list is functionally broken. First, I can only see 5 of 100 entries at a time, which means it takes forever to cycle through the list of friends. For comparison, the video marketplace shows 14 entries on screen at a time. The entire point of the cascading menus is that it's supposed to show more items from a list on screen at once, not less. No one will ever use this friend list unless they're looking at avatars, and it's a poor replacement for the "Friends playing now" feature of the old dashboard.
.

The entire purpose of that list is for the Live Party system. You can see how many people are in a friends live party through it, who is in that party, and join it.

[SPBTooL]

I think it's confusing that there's two achievement menus, one in the guide and one on the dashboard and only one of them lets you delete zero-point-achievement games.I think you have had more time with the new OS than I so some of my thoughts may change. There seems to be some Power User type features that they wanted to keep away from the casual users so they stuck them in the guide.

Then there's the graphical friend list, which is a joke. That thing is so cumbersome it's useless, and was only included because you'd otherwise never see your friends' avatars. The list is functionally broken. First, I can only see 5 of 100 entries at a time, which means it takes forever to cycle through the list of friends. For comparison, the video marketplace shows 14 entries on screen at a time. The entire point of the cascading menus is that it's supposed to show more items from a list on screen at once, not less. No one will ever use this friend list unless they're looking at avatars, and it's a poor replacement for the "Friends playing now" feature of the old dashboard.I don't remember the old friends list having the fast scroll option. Not that that is a big enough improvement but it is nice. I also think that the party system is a big part of the new friends list. The new list does a good job with showing active parties up front. The old list could have done it too but would not have been as intuitive. One of the things I don't like is how hard it is to tell when you get to the end of online friends and into the offline ones.

The old friend list in the guide had the "add a friend" option as the first option on the list, which was the correct place to put it if you value convenience. On the new avatar list, it's the last entry, because they value aesthetics over convenience, and I have to hop through the other 99 entries to get to it. It's actually a step backward.Can't you just go to the left to get to the last one? I haven't tried it but it should do that. Whether it does or not.

That's not to say there aren't things I love about the new update, and if I were to mention those, this post would be three times as long as it is. My point is that the visual overhaul was supposed to ameliorate some of the functional shortcomings of the old approach, as well as appeal to casuals. The problem is that it does neither, it's too confusing, redundant, and convoluted for casual users to get any benefits, and hardcores like you and I will just use the guide button, because it's far more efficient than the GUI, and in some cases (like deleting games from you achievement list), it's impossible to do otherwise.I disagree. While it does have some issues, I have watched children, non-gamers and a PS3 gamer (my brother doesn't have a 360) use the new dash without any issues or complaints. For the more power users there is the new guide. With that general observation said; why are the arcade and demos combind into one when browsing my games library?

When going to the actual Browse sheet for games and videos is there an option to look at parts of the alphabet? I assume that there are other sub options to browse like you get in your game library but I don't remember seeing things like A-E. I may be remembering the PS3's market place with that. All I have done in the new market place is use the New and Popular sheets.

EDIT: I'm thinking of changing my 360 to boot to the disc instead of the dash thanks to the new Guide.

[Rock Bandit]

Bought the Rock Band 2 premium theme. It's cool seeing all those little avatars standing in front of a stack of amplifiers with a random instrument behind them (gong and drums/guitar shaped like an ax/etc...).

[Psykoboy2]

One of the things I don't like is how hard it is to tell when you get to the end of online friends and into the offline ones.

That bugged me at first too. Then I found the trick to it: People who aren't online don't have a game box next to them. I mean...even people just looking at the dash have a game box, but anyone offline doesn't have anything at all.

[SPBTooL]

Has anyone found out how, or if it's live, to do the queuing of downloads through the web site?

EDIT: Haha. It is right on the front page of xbox.com right now. Unfortunately my wife isn't home to turn on my box so I'll just have to queue it for later.

[MachEnergy]

Are there demos for these themes? My biggest gripe about the old way of doing themes and gamerpics is that you couldn't try them on. Often times, the only view you got was tiny versions in the upper banner on the purchase screen....and that's if they were kind enough to show more than a generic game logo!

[Variable Gear]

No, there are no theme demos or gamerpic previews. It's the same old shit all over again.

[divinechaos]

Can we change the color of the clothes? I've been looking aroound and I can't find the option.

[Psykoboy2]

No, there are no theme demos or gamerpic previews. It's the same old shit all over again.

That's odd, cause I know SOME of them show you a preview of the gamerpics (I don't care much for those anymore), and the premium themes show you the back drops that will be used.

[Rock Bandit]

I had far too much fun making my avatar pic.

http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/x%20Rock%20Bandit%20x/avatarpic-l.png

[SPBTooL]

That's odd, cause I know SOME of them show you a preview of the gamerpics (I don't care much for those anymore), and the premium themes show you the back drops that will be used.I think they all will show the backdrop. My custom wallpaper even previews when highlighted.

[Variable Gear]

That's odd, cause I know SOME of them show you a preview of the gamerpics (I don't care much for those anymore), and the premium themes show you the back drops that will be used.
I didn't even notice that. Yeah, it appears that I was wrong about the themes. :o

[MachEnergy]

Has anyone found out how, or if it's live, to do the queuing of downloads through the web site?

EDIT: Haha. It is right on the front page of xbox.com right now. Unfortunately my wife isn't home to turn on my box so I'll just have to queue it for later.

I didn't see you had added an EDIT until I started my reply, so yer gonna get the reply anyways!

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/myAccount/CurrentDownloads.aspx

BOOM!

[shunoshi]

Sweet!

http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/Shunoshi/avatar-body.png

This new dashboard is definitely going to take some getting used to. I only had time to play with it for a few minutes before heading out to work this morning.

[divinechaos]

I wanna change the color of my clothes, damnit!

[Disgustipated]

NXE is one of the greatest things to ever happen to the 360. I'm loving HDD loading and 1680x1050 support.

[Food Nipple]

I think you have had more time with the new OS than I so some of my thoughts may change. There seems to be some Power User type features that they wanted to keep away from the casual users so they stuck them in the guide.

I'd accept the "guide = power user" idea, but there's simple things that you can't do in the guide that you can only do on the dash. For example, I can join a friend's party without an invite from the dash, but not from the guide.

The new list does a good job with showing active parties up front. The old list could have done it too but would not have been as intuitive.

I agree, I'd like Microsoft to do even more of this. Show all my friends in parties at the start of my list, then group the rest of my friends based on the game they're playing. If I have 20 friends playing Gears online, group them together regardless of whether they're playing in the same lobby or not. My biggest issue is that there's a lot of wasted space, I want to see more than 4 friends on screen at once.


Can't you just go to the left to get to the last one? I haven't tried it but it should do that. Whether it does or not.

It does not, the quickest way to get to the "Add a friend option" is for me to push the right bumper twenty-five times.


I disagree. While it does have some issues, I have watched children, non-gamers and a PS3 gamer (my brother doesn't have a 360) use the new dash without any issues or complaints.

You'd know better than I, both my roommates play games, and my comments were mostly based on talking to Haemorrhage, who had ran the "wife test" and didn't have positive impressions.


New complaint: The "Network Settings" menu no longer shows you if your NAT is Open, Moderate, or Strict. As far as I can tell, there's absolutely NO way to find this out.

[Variable Gear]

The "Friends Paying X" list needs some work as well. It'd be nice if it grouped friends playing the same game at the top of the list, instead of functioning as a semi-useless way to access your friends list.

[Iron Past]

I was wondering what the Avatars were reminding me of, and I mean aside from resembling the Miis somewhat, now I remember. Some of the older people here should know what movie this is from:

http://weblogs.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/blog/santa.coming.town.blog.jpg

[Psykoboy2]

Bless Mike and his forethought to include an auto image re-sizer.

[SPBTooL]

I'd accept the "guide = power user" idea, but there's simple things that you can't do in the guide that you can only do on the dash. For example, I can join a friend's party without an invite from the dash, but not from the guide.I didn't think MS would let you just jump into someone's party w/o an invite.

I agree, I'd like Microsoft to do even more of this. Show all my friends in parties at the start of my list, then group the rest of my friends based on the game they're playing. If I have 20 friends playing Gears online, group them together regardless of whether they're playing in the same lobby or not. My biggest issue is that there's a lot of wasted space, I want to see more than 4 friends on screen at once.At first I like the idea of grouping by the game they are playing. But I think it would add confusion to the list when looking for specific friends they would not be in any order.
Is the # of friends playing notification at the loading of a game new? Or did I just forget that it was there?

New complaint: The "Network Settings" menu no longer shows you if your NAT is Open, Moderate, or Strict. As far as I can tell, there's absolutely NO way to find this out.I'm actually running double NAT right now. So checking anything about my network is scary. In fact; my 360 goes through internet connection sharing before the two NATed routers. :eek:

[Variable Gear]

Is the # of friends playing notification at the loading of a game new? Or did I just forget that it was there?
This is a new feature, even if it's poorly implemented.

[BabyJesus]

http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/BabyJesusDC/avatar-body.png

Looks nothing like me except maybe the hair, but I didn't spend more than 3 minutes on it.

[SPBTooL]

It does not, the quickest way to get to the "Add a friend option" is for me to push the right bumper twenty-five times. You sure? Look at 2:20 in this video (http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/articles/928378/the-nxe-video-previews/videos/xbe_blades_video_111108.html). It shows them using the Game Content Browse sheet. One of the browsing options is by letter. Odd that MS would have it in some places but not others...oh wait, :confused:

[Dark Prince]

Grr...for some reason I keep getting a "Server is busy" error whenever I try to get to my avatar.

I can see it on my gamercard.....but, can't get around to showing it here.

[SPBTooL]

Grr...for some reason I keep getting a "Server is busy" error whenever I try to get to my avatar.

I can see it on my gamercard.....but, can't get around to showing it here.
I've been trying to queue up some downloads for awhile now. The site seems real slow.

[biosc1]

Okay...everyone back away from your 360's...nay, shut them down...

I have some dl-ing to do and I don't need you folk clogging dar tubes!

[Dark Prince]

I've been trying to queue up some downloads for awhile now. The site seems real slow.

Yea, I kinda expected this to happen. Which is why it'll probably be a few days before everything smooths out and returns back to normal.

Especially for people who are having marketplace problems. I didn't have much of a problem with me, but it looks like others have.

I will have to applaud MS for taking the next step like this. The NXE could now be a real bone decision maker for one purchasing a new console.

It's still of course pointless to get the $199 version regardless if its cheap...

[Bone]

Those premium themes are going to kill me.

Unless they release one for Burnout Paradise...then I'll never buy another one.

Until, of, course, they release one for Watchmen.
Fallout 3 theme, please! I'd love to deck myself out in some Mad Max armor, with Dogmeat by my side and a ramshackle Megaton residence behind me.

[Sandman]

I'm going to have to look into these new Premium themes...is there a Gears 2 theme?

[Variable Gear]

I'm going to have to look into these new Premium themes...is there a Gears 2 theme?
Yes, and one of them is free.

[Mortis]

I'm going to have to look into these new Premium themes...is there a Gears 2 theme?

I think there are two, the destroyed beauty one looks best to me. I like the Halo Wars and Fable 2 themes, probably going to have to get one of these.

[Iron Past]

There's three Gears 2 (premium) themes, I believe. Go to the Premium Themes blade and they're all listed there.

Interestingly, if you aren't connected to Live, you start on the My Xbox blade, which is cool. I hated starting on the Live blade in the old OS when there was nothing there. But it sucks that I don't get the cool art on the blades unless conneced, cause that was slick.

Also, for those saying that navigating takes too long, LB/RB is light speed for the cascading stuff, which might help. (Like FoodNipple looking for that "Add Friend" link)

Scott, I installed, deleated (only took a few seconds), and reinstalled Nut & Bolts just fine, did you go to the System blade to deleate your game?

[Psykoboy2]

I'm going to have to look into these new Premium themes...is there a Gears 2 theme?

Does a bear shit in the woods?

[Psykoboy2]

Scott, I installed, deleated (only took a few seconds), and reinstalled Nut & Bolts just fine, did you go to the System blade to deleate your game?

At first, I did it from My Xbox. I hit "Y" for game details and it had the option to delete the game there. It gave me no error message there. I just accepted the deletion and that was it...not even a progress bar.

Then I went to the system section and saw it was still installed. Tried to delete it from there and got an error message.

[Sl1pstream]

Uno apparently has avatar support. Anyone up for a game one of these days?

[Sandman]

Does a bear shit in the woods?

Apparently it does...3 times.

[pseudopseudo]

Uno apparently has avatar support. Anyone up for a game one of these days?

Always. If you see me on, shoot me an invite.

Anyone know when the new Uno game is supposed to come out? (The one they showed at E3.)

[Inverarity]

Just a note - if you play Rock Band 2, install it to the hard drive. The difference in menu performance, load times, etc., seems really impressive. My 360's drive has been iffy for a while, so it's a huge benefit to be able to run from the HD anyway, but my first impression is that Rock Band 2 performs much better. (No more disc read errors in the middle of a seven-song set! Hooray!)

[pomeroy]

...the damn thing locked up after twenty minutes. Weird.

[Wraith]

Does this "Update in Progress" screen have to constantly re-estimate the time remaining? I've jumped between 55 min, 97 min, 58 min, 72 min, 105 min, 85 min... during the first couple minutes that it's actually been downloading.

[Iron Past]

Does this "Update in Progress" screen have to constantly re-estimate the time remaining? I've jumped between 55 min, 97 min, 58 min, 72 min, 105 min, 85 min... during the first couple minutes that it's actually been downloading.

Wow, really? I literally took less than two minutes for the whole thing for me, but then again it was quite a bit earlier; I imagine many more people are home from work/school now. If it keeps changing the estimated time, that's because of the ebb and flow of the strain on the servers and your connection not being consistent.

[Shadowstorm]

Does this "Update in Progress" screen have to constantly re-estimate the time remaining? I've jumped between 55 min, 97 min, 58 min, 72 min, 105 min, 85 min... during the first couple minutes that it's actually been downloading.

That's odd. Took me ~two minutes flat to download it.

[Purple Santa]

Easy download here. And I love the new "experience". I thought I loved my Xbox before...

[StarGypsy]

Only took a couple of minutes for me to download and install.
I love the hard drive installation.

[Spigot]

Colour me impressed... so far. It took all of about 2 minutes to download and install the NXE and then my wife even helped me make my Avatar. Then I had to turn it off... but what little I saw looked nice.

The Blades were cool the first time I fiddled with them. I was getting rather sick of them by now, esp. the way some of the things were laid out in the Arcade tabs and so forth. This looks a LOT nicer.

Now to grab Kingdom For Keflings!

It's too bad a) I don't have a big hard drive and b) don't live in the US, thereby rendering the Netflix thing useless for me. But I'll be happy as long as the interface stays as zippy as it is now.

[Wraith]

That's odd. Took me ~two minutes flat to download it.It only ended up taking < 45 minutes to download (I watched two episodes of Newsradio while I waited). But then this is pretty slow DSL, so it wasn't as long of a wait as I was expecting.

[Haemorrhage]

How do I get this achievement (http://live.xbox.com/en-CA/profile/Achievements/ViewAchievementDetails.aspx?tid=%09]Hei%2fm1e4X6z-17v&compareTo=Major+Nelson)? :p

http://i437.photobucket.com/albums/qq92/TheHaemorrhage/Untitled.jpg

[DeathtollWRX]

I'm watching Heroes ,., last weeks episode that I missed Streaming.

No hiccups no delays. 10mpbs down is my connection.

This is cool.. very cool
Thanks for the freebie Microsoft.

[Spigot]

Haemmorage, I think you have to work for MS :)

[BabyJesus]

Netflix integration ROCKS. Totally the best feature.

[BLeeP]

Netflix integration ROCKS. Totally the best feature.

When it works and doesn't give you horrible video quality 8-P.

Other than that, it is amazing.

[Spigot]

Netflix integration ROCKS. Totally the best feature.*grumbles some more about how this feature is totally absent outside of the US*

Stupid Netflix.

[J3DI]

I'm not sure how many of you have ever created a Japanese Live account. I *ahem* came across one today. Not much is different from their NXE than ours, except for one thing... STREAMING VIDEO IN THE BLADES!!! Wait, are they even called blades now? What are they, pages?

Once you boot up there is the spotlight page. About 3 pages/blades back you can see an trailer running for Last Remnant. I was much more impressed with that, than the (static click here) Lebron James Nike ad.

[cp#]

My favorite part so far is the Lebron James Nike ad.

[DeathtollWRX]

to think this was all free.

I'm really happy about this. the only issue is my 20 gig hard drive can only load Gears 2 and i'm finished.

[OldJadedGamer]

Netflix integration ROCKS. Totally the best feature.

I watched Weird Science earlier streaming from Netlfix. Totally, best feature ever.

[Psykoboy2]

I'm not sure how many of you have ever created a Japanese Live account. I *ahem* came across one today. Not much is different from their NXE than ours, except for one thing... STREAMING VIDEO IN THE BLADES!!!

It does it for the US NXE as well. Or did during the preview.

[Rock Bandit]

I'm glad I upgraded to a 120gb hard drive in September. Playing from the hard drive is awesome. It really helps in games where the atmosphere is supposed to be silent and foreboding that I don't have a jet engine whirring in the room anymore.

[Haemorrhage]

Haemmorage, I think you have to work for MS :)

I guess my sarcasm wasn't obvious. I just thought it was pretty cool that the Xbox Live team gave themselves an 'achievement unlocked' for finally launching the NXE.

[LarsenNET]

When it works and doesn't give you horrible video quality 8-P.

Other than that, it is amazing.

I ran into that yesterday. I have 6MB down with comcast and if I started an HD movie it would be in HD for about 5 seconds then say my connection slowed and it would buffer and continue for another 5 seconds. I'd get the same message again but when it comes back it would be in SD and look really bad, not watchable in my opinion. I compared it against a DVD that I own and it's not even close to DVD quality.

Later in the evening I tried again and it wouldn't even play anything. I'm hoping it's because live was being slammed last night and all will be well when it settles down. Also the choices for HD are pathetic almost nothing worth watch except for maybe Heroes.

[jpublic]

I wish the damn NXE would actually auto-start a game like it did before.

[appel]

I wish the damn NXE would actually auto-start a game like it did before.

Isn't that a setting? And I thought it was on by default.

[Spigot]

It does it for the US NXE as well. Or did during the preview.I'm pretty sure it did that last night when I was poking around in it.

I couldn't download the various Gears 2 Premium themes (at least, not if they were free). It seemed like certain aspects were disabled last night, likely due to server load.

[LarsenNET]

Isn't that a setting? And I thought it was on by default.

Yes, and yes. I turned it off to make it easier to load games to the HDD.

[MachEnergy]

I'm glad I upgraded to a 120gb hard drive in September. Playing from the hard drive is awesome. It really helps in games where the atmosphere is supposed to be silent and foreboding that I don't have a jet engine whirring in the room anymore.

<-- jealous of your 120gb hard drive

I was really impressed with how much more zippy Fable 2 felt after installing it. Dialog from passerbys, the breadcrumb trail, the menus....everything felt....well, the way it should have been from the get go. It almost feels like Fable 2 wasn't optimized on purpose, to show off how cool the NXE installation feature is.

Somebody else mentioned it before, but I too was freaked out when the first loading screen hit. So quiet. I can hear my own thoughts! I can't wait to get back to Dead Space, now that the silence will be more effective.

[MachEnergy]

I only messed around with Netflix for a little while last night, but I didn't find any way of choosing HD movies or knowing if the one I chose was in HD. How are you people finding HD movies to stream?

[Mortis]

I only messed around with Netflix for a little while last night, but I didn't find any way of choosing HD movies or knowing if the one I chose was in HD. How are you people finding HD movies to stream?

Heroes is in HD and so is The Thing, that's all I have found so far. You can't tell until you start to play it, they need to set up a way to identify it on the website and the 360.

[MachEnergy]

So in order to watch them, I am guessing on the Netflix website, I would go to Watch Instantly --> Genres --> HD.....find the movie I want to watch in HD......add the movie to my queue/instant list.......then fire up the Xbox?

[Psykoboy2]

Heroes is in HD and so is The Thing, that's all I have found so far. You can't tell until you start to play it, they need to set up a way to identify it on the website and the 360.

Go to netflix.com -> watch instantly tab -> genres -> HD

[Mortis]

So in order to watch them, I am guessing on the Netflix website, I would go to Watch Instantly --> Genres --> HD.....find the movie I want to watch in HD......add the movie to my queue/instant list.......then fire up the Xbox?

Yes that is correct, LarsenNET just informed me of the HD genre listing. The Thing does not show up in the list though so it isn't totally accurate yet.

Edit: Figured out why The Thing was missing, need to include rated and seen movies. Cool.

[Wilkz07]

How do I get this achievement (http://live.xbox.com/en-CA/profile/Achievements/ViewAchievementDetails.aspx?tid=%09]Hei%2fm1e4X6z-17v&compareTo=Major+Nelson)? :p

http://i437.photobucket.com/albums/qq92/TheHaemorrhage/Untitled.jpg

probably some gimmick for the launch team. text says 'on nov 19 WE launched...' probably can't get it. I checked and I don't have it.


Yay its me:
http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/Wilkz07/avatar-body.png

[MachEnergy]

Go to netflix.com -> watch instantly tab -> genres -> HD

Hey Psykoboy2, why don't you man up and use a two-hyphen arrow? ;)

[Mike Kelehan]

<-- jealous of your 120gb hard driveI was able to get it at Target for $126, then sold my old HDD for $20 to a friend who bought an Arcade, bringing it down to $106. After migrating my data, I put the migration kit on Ebay, where it's currently at $31 (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140282695076), knocking the operation down to $75. Worth it.

[Rock Bandit]

<-- jealous of your 120gb hard drive



It's been a real godsend not having to worry about space anymore, I grabbed it when Amazon dropped their price. I had the upcoming (at the time) hard drive installs in mind but I mostly upgraded because I knew within 7-8 months there would be no space left on my 20 gig with all that damn RB DLC I buy.

[SPBTooL]

Has anyone notice that in the game library there is an option for "Xbox 360 Games" that is empty. also, on the market place through Xbox.com there is a section for Xbox 360 Games -> Down Loads -> Full Games (http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/catalog.aspx?d=4&r=-1&g=-1&sb=2&ot=7&mt=0&rl=0&p=1) that is also empty. (link may not work if not logged in)

Could we be getting full game downloads soon? Or maybe the Prime Time Games will require a DL that will be stored there.

[LarsenNET]

Has anyone notice that in the game library there is an option for "Xbox 360 Games"

That is where your installed 360 games are. You must not have loaded any.

[SPBTooL]

That is where your installed 360 games are. You must not have loaded any.I though that might be the case; I'm still making space to get Fable II on. But why then also have a Marketplace space for it?

[Iron Past]

I though that might be the case; I'm still making space to get Fable II on. But why then also have a Marketplace space for it?

I'm just quoting this from the link you gave:

Downloadable add-ons, content, and free demos for your favorite 360 games

That doesn't rule out full game downloads later on, though. This gen is just getting to the meat, and Sony's already doing it.

Edit: Oh, wait, I see what you mean, that's an entirely separate section. :o

The last part of my statement stands, though. ;)

[Mike Kelehan]

Has anyone notice that in the game library there is an option for "Xbox 360 Games" that is empty. also, on the market place through Xbox.com there is a section for Xbox 360 Games -> Down Loads -> Full Games (http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/catalog.aspx?d=4&r=-1&g=-1&sb=2&ot=7&mt=0&rl=0&p=1) that is also empty. (link may not work if not logged in)

Could we be getting full game downloads soon? Or maybe the Prime Time Games will require a DL that will be stored there.

I think we'll be seeing full, multi-GB downloadable games in the not too distant future.

[MachEnergy]

I think we'll be seeing full, multi-GB downloadable games in the not too distant future.

Christ....I'm thinking that even the 120GB drive won't be enough. If Microsoft really wants to push the life of the console to 10 years, I'd like a cheaper method of large scale storage please.

[Mike Kelehan]

Christ....I'm thinking that even the 120GB drive won't be enough. If Microsoft really wants to push the life of the console to 10 years, I'd like a cheaper method of large scale storage please.

The 120GB will be fine. Even the 60GB will be all right; disc based games seem to be running 5-6GB when I install them. You just won't be able to have too many at once.

The 20GB, though, will be entirely insufficient, which is why they're phasing it out.

[Haemorrhage]

Christ....I'm thinking that even the 120GB drive won't be enough. If Microsoft really wants to push the life of the console to 10 years, I'd like a cheaper method of large scale storage please.

That's exactly why I'm holding out for the 500 gig hard drive.

[MachEnergy]

The 120GB will be fine. Even the 60GB will be all right; disc based games seem to be running 5-6GB when I install them. You just won't be able to have too many at once.

The 20GB, though, will be entirely insufficient, which is why they're phasing it out.

I was more referring to full game downloads. It sounds like they may be trying what EA did with Burnout Paradise being fully downloadable on the PS3. Disc games, I can remove without much concern. It takes around 10 minutes to copy a disc, so I'd like to avoid that as much as possible, seeing that I concurrently play 3-5 games at once. However it is these downloadable versions that trouble me. If I run out of space, I'm going to delete those last.

[Mike Kelehan]

I was more referring to full game downloads. It sounds like they may be trying what EA did with Burnout Paradise being fully downloadable on the PS3. Disc games, I can remove without much concern. It takes around 10 minutes to copy a disc, so I'd like to avoid that as much as possible, seeing that I concurrently play 3-5 games at once. However it is these downloadable versions that trouble me. If I run out of space, I'm going to delete those last.

I too was referring to full game downloads. If a game takes 5-6GB to rip, it'd take 5-6GB to download. You could easily hold 5 games at once on a 60GB and still have twice as much free space as people with a totally clean 20GB. With a 120GB, you could hold 10-15 games.

[Grifter]

http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/HYPERGLIDE/avatarpic-l.png

Looks like some just discovered ceiling cat.

[Hyperglide]

Oh pants posted in the wrong thread again... grr..

[Psykoboy2]

Looks like some just discovered ceiling cat.

That or......Surprise Buttsecks!!!

[Suave Peanut]

Looks like some just discovered ceiling cat.

That or......Surprise Buttsecks!!!

I don't see how those things are mutually exclusive.

[Purple Santa]

Mags takes advantage of another avatar...