New Xbox Experience (From Your Local Guardian)

New Xbox Experience

12:38pm Monday 19th January 2009

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As Obi Col Kenobi just blogged (silly name Colin!) Welcome to the Game On blog! Here we will be offering our expert (sort of) opinions on all the latest developments in the world of games and entertainment technology, and I will be insulting Colin every time he says anything, because that's just how I roll...

So here we go:

2008 was a big year for games, and for the Xbox 360 in particular. One of the biggest developments was the long-awaited arrival of the Xbox's Dashboard Update (also known as the New Xbox Experience), which had all Xbox 360 owners (myself included) jumping up and down in excitement.

And what did we get? In all honesty- not that much.

Sure, it's a little more shiny, and they've added some nice additions to the way the menus operate, but most of it is purely cosmetic.

The most important additions were the way that hiring and downloading movies and accessing the Xbox Live Marketplace was made easier and quicker through clever use of the newer-style blade system and, of course, the Avatar maker.

I won't lie, the Avatar system is basically a shameless rip-off of the Wii's Miis, but with a little more realism and expression to the characters, and a whole lot of clothes to dress them up in.

While not as in-depth or graphically 'pretty' as Playstation Home, at least it isn't a glorified advert dispenser, and Microsoft have promised a lot of little things that you will be able to do with Avatars, such as games and online competitions.

Though the almighty Empire of Bill Gates is yet to properly use Avatars for anything fun, it's a nice little toy to play with, and I eagerly await the time when I can have my Avatar punch Col's to the ground with a cute smile on his little face...

The other big change is the party system- allowing more than two people to link up and move from game to game fairly easily, while also getting around the problem of wanting to privately chat with more than one person. As a knock on effect, this means that getting to know other players is a little easier, if you can stand the huge number of 10-year-old Americans that infest Xbox Live.

Finally, viewing played games, achievements, linked photos and listening to music is much easier and straightforward, though all it really rounds down to is a slight restructuring of the menus.

On the other hand, it was free, so i'm not complaining!