The New New New Xbox Experience Halo4 Dash

[Myth]

just if anyone is interested. I had the leaked nxe off the web and got selected for the 3rd wave of the preview. My console prompted for an update and I'm back on live so definitley no banning!

Thanks for letting me know mate very glad about that.

Just installing a few more games to the hard drive of my 360 with the 'fake' NXE ready for when I can connect to live now.

[Spatial]

Ah well, just suffered my first let down (albeit a very minor one). After being wowed by the pop up images for the install etc of Gears, Fallout and Fable I'm slightly disappointed to see that not all games (i.e. Saints Row 2) get this wonderful treatment.

Lets it down a little, but hopefully all future titles will have it as standard.

[ChrisF]

Really liking it! Just created my Avatar... Wife saw me doing it and said "That looks like the Wii". Oh well!

Tried a couple of Themes though and they never worked (24 and Family Guy). No loss though I guess as they were freebies.

Nice and quick though eh!

[Matt]

First thoughts:

If Apple bought Sony, this is the interface you'd get in their offspring console.

Install was seemless, I done nothing. That's good

The intro video was way OTT. Come on, it's an interface, it doesn't need fanfair!

The Miis aren't as bad as I'd feared - the Creation aspect is surprisingly quick. Looks to be room for some unique characters.

New interface seems unwieldy. Sure in time it'll be fine, but putting apparently everything in it's own window may not be the most intuitive design I've ever seen.

Seems very responsive so far, yet to play in game.

Installing takes as much time as expected. While installing, I hit Guide and a mini dashboard appeared, letting me message, friends list, etc.

Themes are a waste of money. You get to see about 1/3 of them on the top of the dash. The "ground" is a grey "watery" area, would have been nice if it was semi-transparent showing the rest of your paid-for theme.

No new HDMI settings. I was hoping for native 768 but it's not there (at least not for me). Also no option to turn off HDMI sound, which is a small annoyance for me.

Can't emphasise how much quicker navigating seems, just have to work out where everything is now.

So all in all, I'm glad MS have done it, and I'm still left wondering just why we all got so excited about it.

[ChrisF]

Oh I did mean to say that the XNA stuff is there! Loads of new games... which is nice

[Myth]

I'm really excited about the big party system really above anything.

[El Leone]

I hate yo guys.

[Spatial]

Themes are a waste of money. You get to see about 1/3 of them on the top of the dash. The "ground" is a grey "watery" area, would have been nice if it was semi-transparent showing the rest of your paid-for theme.

Yeah the themes aren't the success that the mock-ups would have you envisage. That's why MS have started releasing larger premium versions of themes which are redesigned.

Themes were pretty much a waste of money anyway - thankfully the only one I ever really used (Bejewelled) still looks pretty good. Thought I am partial to the second theme that comes with the new dash - I'll probably stick with that

[ChrisF]

Apologies if it's already been mentioned, but I just discovered that pressing the right thumb stick in makes your avatar burp (during avatar creation)

[chosen_one666]

Quick question to those who're in the preview thingie.

Do you have to create an avatar? I really don't want one, and don't want to be forced to make one.

[Matt]

I think you do but it'll be a one click generic avatar, don't alter anything, won't take any time at all. I enjoyed doing mine, even got the scar on my face pretty close to the real one!

More time with it now. The mini-guide is great, nice and compact, shows you the info you need to know. Still not really keen on the main dash, your friends list scrolls towards / away from you in 3d, so you can only see 3 people at once, and only the name of the "nearest" friend. Looks like you'll see their avatar, and you see a nice pic of the game they're playing. But it's not a good system for quickly finding and joining mates. Looks nice, but not functional enough for me.

Mini-guide is the way to go for all your gaming needs

[MJ]

Yeah the themes aren't the success that the mock-ups would have you envisage. That's why MS have started releasing larger premium versions of themes which are redesigned.

Themes were pretty much a waste of money anyway - thankfully the only one I ever really used (Bejewelled) still looks pretty good. Thought I am partial to the second theme that comes with the new dash - I'll probably stick with that

Most of the image is covered by the window in the middle.

The new Gears 2 Last Day free theme (12 MB) has been designed for the NXE because it also skins the Friends Channel with a Gears 2 style image behind each avatar. You still lose a lot of the image when you go into the tiles though.

Do you have to create an avatar? I really don't want one, and don't want to be forced to make one.

Every profile is forced to create one or at least select one of the pre-made ones and there is no way to turn it off.

[angelx]

A simple theme can look ok, I have a street fighter theme on mine and it looks better than all my others, i would say 90% of my themes are now redundant

[chosen_one666]

Cheers for the quick answers guys.

Bit annoying that they're not optional, but there's nothing I can do about it now, save for keeping my Xbox away from Live for the rest of eternity.

Why can't they have just let those who wanted to make one do so, and those who didn't skip it?

[Pilotwings]

You know the way on the new dash you can delete your game achievements.

Does that mean that people who don't care about them can delete them forever?, or is it only the 0G ones that can be removed?