The console, which I have set to start on the dashboard, immediately notified me of an available update. After quickly downloading some files using the old-school dashboard, it booted into the new one and finished downloading/installing the rest. The entire process took about 4 minutes, although I’m sure had I been on a day early during launch the strain on the servers would have been heavier.

XBox Avatars

After agreeing to a new privacy policy, I was immediately instructed to “abduct” a new avatar. Seriously.
As far as avatar customization goes, it’s pretty much the Mii creator with a little more variety, and accessories. I’m sporting some slick fuzzy gloves and an awesome battle scar.

The left stick very intuitively adjusts your avatar’s head for a better view while customizing – it’s good to see a character generator finally get this right.

You have the option of taking a snapshot of your avatar and using it as a gamer picture.

Your friends list now also puts their created avatars front and center – which allows for some very interesting social revelations, especially for those friends you don’t know in person or haven’t seen for a while.

Hey M$, you know what you should be able to do? Use your gamerscore to buy new clothes. Or at least let gamerscore have some sort of positive connotation…

There are also arcade titles now available that use your Mii in-game. Oops, sorry, I mean your avatar.

Look, Feel, and Sound

It’s like a titanium-coated Wii interface on ice. Coverflow meets analog sticks. XP collides with Vista. It’s attractive and unique. Although one could say it feels very similar to an Apple UI, this has a distinctly Microsoft feel to it.

The navigation is faster and more fluid, more intuitive, and visualizes many layers deep, allowing you to find where you want to go before you’re actually there. It’s also worth noting that this dashboard is a LOT faster than the old one. At least on my system, things were getting quite laggy. Thumbnails, menus, and everything else pop up at a rate that is no longer complainable in the least.

The sound is simple, crisp, and subliminally makes you want to play chess. Although I’m going to miss that whooshing sound of the slides going back and fourth on the old dashboard…

Here’s a double edged sword – there are no more blatantly placed advertisement banners, in fact, it’s now impossible to tell exactly what is an advertisement and what isn’t. The new Xbox experience is fraught with slick product placement. That’s the future, might as well get used to it.

Finally, the Xbox guide button functions similarly, but brings up a different menu. This menu turns out to be a minimalistic re-design of the original dashboard.

New Features

Having a Netflix subscription just got a whole lot more attractive, with access to instant streaming.

Parties of up to 8 can get together and chat, or “roam from game to game”.

Taking a page from the book of Sony, you can now install full games onto your harddrive. The disc will still be required to play. But your load times will be decreased, and your disc drive won’t be making as much ruckus.

You can also now shop the Xbox LIVE Marketplace from your PC, via http://marketplace.xbox.com. Stuff can be downloaded upon your next sign on.

Final Fantasy XIII will be released on the XBox 360 concurrently with the PS3. That’s a big deal, and has got to put a little dampener on PS3 owners whose list of exclusive titles anyone cares about just dropped by 50%. Heck, I’ll even feel a twinge of betrayal playing a Final Fantasy title on a non-Sony platform.

There’s something that’ll make your console overheat.

Sure, I never quite beat FFX (I’m stuck on a part where fish keep killing me), and I’ve never gotten around to playing FFVII (It’s on my to-do list), but when you put achievements into the equation, I’ll wrap this thing up. It’s sick, I know. But one of the 360′s prominent weaknesses thus far has been the lack of quality traditional RPGs, and the Primo-Facto one coming to Microsoft’s console fits in nicely.

2. Dude, your dashboard is too colorful. Here, take this one that looks more like an Apple UI.

This fall’s big update will completely change the look of the Xbox 360′s dashboard, along with adding new functionality and features. It doesn’t look bad, but if I wanted a menu that looks like the top of a freshly polished MacBook Pro I would have bought a Wii.

The original dashboard was always a bit cluttered, and the new one promises to be easier to navigate, but couldn’t the effect be achieved while maintaining a less aesthetically pleasing display? And… what happens to all those people who purchased themes? Like say, if I happened to purchase the “Fine Woods” theme about 2 years ago. And although I may regret those wasted points and haven’t used it since, will those beautiful mahogany patterns never be available to me again?

And how will an online-multiplayer version of 1 vs 100 work when everyone’s got search engine’s at their fingertips? I dunno.

But I haven’t been let down by the XBox Live experience as of date, so I have confidence these things will smooth out. The new dashboard and it’s Mii-like Avatars will also be more pervasive in the console experience itself, perhaps having more of an effect even on the users who choose to have their console “boot to disc”.

3. We kicked Bob Ross out of the QA department, they look better now.

The two most expensive toddler chew toys ever designed were these two controllers (released last year):

This isn’t an N64, Microsoft. I’ll be chainsawing aliens with an assault rifle using these controllers, and would prefer not to see anything that is neon baby blue while I’m doing it. E3 2008 included the announcement of two new limited edition controllers, a green one and a red one. The red one looks good, assisted by matte-black highlights. The green one is just green with the usual grey. So, a slight improvement… But have they fixed the D-Pad yet? Don’t think so.

4. Okay, so the camera actually does something again!

So we all had a great time playing Uno, graphing our faces on Rainbow Six avatars, and enjoying the great game that was Totemball. (Just kidding about that last one). Yet after that, what was the XBox live vision camera good for? It made the background of my dashboard wavy, yeah. That was it. But now we’re seeing games such as You’re in the Movies (releases this Fall) that look like they’re utilizing the camera in a way that isn’t just a gimmick.

5. Your future looks busy.

The 360 has a killer line up arriving in the next year. Gears of War 2 looks polished and epic, Fable II introduces social RPG elements never before seen, and Fallout 3 should at the very least be as awesome as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was. Halo-Wars will keep both RTS and Bungie fans quenched while Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts brings platforming back to where it was in the late 90′s, which is in no way a bad thing. These traditional A-List titles along with new additions (like Final Fantasy) as well as the new dashboard’s casual games and new media/entertainment options (like a partnership with Netflix) show that the XBox 360 owner’s horizons are broadening at a rapid pace. I hope the community and the support team can keep up.