The New New New Xbox Experience Halo4 Dash

[Mr-Niceguy2001]

I actually really like the new dashboard. I use a stone prisoner theme for my background which is dark and like the simple display of the content. I especially like how the zune videos (The guild) have sorted out the synopsis of episodes and it's a lot easier to navigate.

In the game marketplace, its nice having large visuals for the games, especially the genre sections and when you do select the game, the transitions from each slide is smooth and the preview pics of the games automatically cycle through without being in fullscreen mode.

It is mainly a visual update but I like it. I felt the NXE dash, whilst much better than the previous dash was too rough for want of a better description, and this mimics the windows 7 OS on the mobile phones, which gets the job done in a simple and clean manner (though I think the mobile OS is a little too clean, there really isn't much going on).

Simple, clean, and its far quicker for me anyway. I disagree with the points made in that cvg article, albeit it is an opinion and this is mine, no right or wrong, I just don't agree.

The old and new dash doesn't add or strip away "fun", it's simply just a visual remake with different transitions.

I think if people are going to get all angry about the dash like some are in the comments section in that link, maybe they should put more energy into playing a videogame instead of arguing over a frontend and seeing this as the harbinger of doom and embrace of casual gaming ad nuseum...

[Yakumo]

I'm not too keen on the new plain look but I must say that it is faster. We don't have the Sky Player in Japan but we finally got ZUNE. I'm loving the speed of it. Real 1080p HD movies instantly. No waiting for buffering, no nothing! That is very impressive. Plus we get the anime as well just a shame it's mostly Gundam and Macross **** at the moment thank sto the Bandai Channel.

[Prototype]

So where are the brand new features MS promised for taking off xbox 1 support? If this is just the update. Then what a shambles.

[Charlie]

I think if people are going to get all angry about the dash like some are in the comments section in that link, maybe they should put more energy into playing a videogame instead of arguing over a frontend and seeing this as the harbinger of doom and embrace of casual gaming ad nuseum...

You're right, it is just a frontend and many people (possibly myself included) are overreacting but when something is changed it should be for the better, so it's unfortunate that the new dash, as far as i'm concerned, is both visually and functionally a step backwards.

I don't know why it isn't possible to choose a Guide colour scheme to suit our own tastes like we could with the original dashboard. I don't like white and now I'm faced with a huge block of white every time I go to read/send a message, see who's playing what games, etc. It looks cheap and nasty and, worse, it hurts my poor eyes.

[JSR]

So where are the brand new features MS promised for taking off xbox 1 support? If this is just the update. Then what a shambles.

I assume the voice chat is improved by now. Haven't tested it yet, but that was one of the aspects hindered by the original XBox.

[^Katsu]

LASTFM now has xbox 360 game ads in Oh and you have to download an update for it & the ZUNE movie thing on top of the update, and it hangs for what feels like an age to do so too!
Chat audio levels are increased, but the rest is pretty Mank tbh (that last M is a W btw)

The new MSN windows live 2011 is 1million % crap, its actually quicker to post a letter or walk to whoever you need to have a convo with 3 second lag on msn typing convo is just ridiculous. Uninstalled and on the prev version now which was good not great, I wish these companies would stop trying to push marketing & brand ****e and start actually making products that push usability / customer control forwards!

I don't give a flying f about waveygayhands
I do want:
To get a message in game>read it/reply>get back on with the game without dying.
See who's online>invite to party>get back on with the game without dying.
Type a message FAST>REPEAT.
The ability to alter my setup>settings>sounds>schemes>personalisation.
Seriously just how hard is it to do that?

[Mayhem]

Still mulling over the new dashboard. Some things were lagging but I put that down to the servers being hammered to get hold of it. Will see in a few days if it continues to be slow in parts.

The new MSN windows live 2011 is 1million % crap, its actually quicker to post a letter or walk to whoever you need to have a convo with 3 second lag on msn typing convo is just ridiculous. Uninstalled and on the prev version now which was good not great, I wish these companies would stop trying to push marketing & brand ****e and start actually making products that push usability / customer control forwards!

Topic divergence briefly here, but no one I know likes Live Essentials 2011 either. Everyone who has tried it has gone back to the 2009 version. I listened to them and am staying put too!

[sj33]

^Without wanting to diverge from the topic too much further, the new Live Messenger 2011 is indeed painful, but also demonstrates the fact that Microsoft know they've missed the boat when it comes to social networking (they've been missing a lot of future revolutions recently eh?), people are chosing to use Facebook and the like instead of instant messaging, and they have no presence in that field. Thus, they've gone out of their way to get some kind of presence from the likes of Facebook and MySpace into their application, creating a bit of a mess with no real focus and no longer really sure what type of user they are trying to appeal to, and drifting away from what their original focus was as it now excels at neither. This all sounds familiar.

Reinstalling 2009 is an option, but given Microsoft have dropped support for previous versions of the application, this will only be an option for a while.

[charlesr]

http://www.pidgin.im/

[Family Fry]

Back on topic of moaning about the dash,

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=273039

This made me lols though.

"I'm sure that the 360 will provide more than enough for real gamers for a long time, but today it feels like my console is trying to impress someone - and that someone isn't me."

Awwwwww

[Flabio]

If you've had a chance to see any Windows Phone 7 stuff running, you'd know where this design aesthetic is coming from. I suspect the aim is to match Sony and try to have a consistant 'look' across their entire product line.

If you're using a custom theme it doesn't look anywhere near as IN YOUR FACE though. Admittedly I've had something like 6 months to get used to the change...

[FelixofMars]

Yeah I realise its a mirror of their Windows 7 phone, not really sure why because it seems that going to tank. You would have thought they would have learned from the 'success' of the Kin.

Kin-Kinects again MS hit us with a brand over usefulness. The new dashboard is a joke. I noticed that the little tutorial is mostly to sell the Kinect rather than provide useful information about the new Dash.

I also have disabled all the sounds because they annoyed me. Also I really hate the overuse of white. It actually seem odd because the console itself is now black but the interface looks like a Wii GUI reject.

Did anyone focus test this?

Any yes super slow going into any of the online content, but maybe because there where issues because everyone had to upload to the new dash.

I know that its up to MS and us peons have no say in the matter but seriously they need to actually ask the user base.

[charlesr]

If you've had a chance to see any Windows Phone 7 stuff running, you'd know where this design aesthetic is coming from. I suspect the aim is to match Sony and try to have a consistant 'look' across their entire product line.

If you're using a custom theme it doesn't look anywhere near as IN YOUR FACE though. Admittedly I've had something like 6 months to get used to the change...

Yeah, I noticed that, thus calling them "tiles" earlier. Or big white squares What works on a tiny mobile isn't guaranteed to look good when scaled up to a telly.
Text only version as option ftw please MS.

[spagmasterswift]

Its alright. Didn't notice any difference with my Avatar and seems to run smooth. Like the funky 360 logo when you turn it on (although it hangs around just a tad too long). The way your friends are pumped up when you cycle through your list is nice. Erm, clean dash guide box is alright.

[Charlie]

Given the general backlash in regards to the colour scheme, I'm hopeful Microsoft will change it before too long. Fingers crossed.