New Xbox Update

[Super Buu]

What are your thoughts?

I haven't paid much attention to the interface overhaul, but the hard drive installation has made me really glad I bought late and got an elite. I installed Fallout 3 and it loads twice as fast - hopefully it'll have the same effect on Mass Effect. I'm also interested to see whether it'll stop slowdown (Spider-Man: Web of Shadows was fun as hell, but later in the game it does get some nasty stuttering). If you've installed any other games, tell us how big a difference it makes.

I prefer the Xbox avatars to Miis. It would be cool to see some games incorporating your avatar in places, similar to what a lot of Wii games do with the Miis. Metroid Prime 3 lets Samus have a bobblehead of your Mii =3

[Alura]

I really, really hate the new dashboard. Not to mention it sucks I can't use the old skins I purchased. What a way to say "fuck you and your money."

[Super Buu]

That's weird, from what I heard you should be able to use old themes, and my Castle Crashers theme is working fine ... although I can't find where to change it. But if that's true that's a real kick in the balls.

[Saz]

Yeah the themes are still there as far as I know. I like the new dashboard, it looks much better than the old one imo. I haven't tried installing any games onto my HD, don't really see much point, loading times don't really bother me as long as it isn't absurd. Plus I only have about 8gb of free space, don't know how much it would take to install a game, or how long it takes either.

[Kaden]

Plus I only have about 8gb of free space, don't know how much it would take to install a game, or how long it takes either.

It's definitely worth it to install games. Space isn't too big of an issue, since you can delete the game files once you're done with the game. The longest install I've seen on the PS3 was about eight minutes (ok... MGS4 was probably longer, but it's an outlier) and you'll save more time than that with the faster loading.

[Super Buu]

For me with a mostly-unused (but soon I suspect will be filled up) 80gb HDD, there's no point not installing most games. For things like GTA4 which load like, once, I probably wouldn't bother. But games like Mass Effect (which is an unoptimised cesspool of loading), hell yes.

[Cain]

Xplay said the ME load times don't change by much. If you could load a game without the disc it'd be an amazing feature.

[Kaden]

You could also just spend a few minutes installing it and see for yourself.

Although I'm not a huge fan of X-Play.

[Saz]

Wait so if you install a game on your HD, you still need to use the disc to play it?

[Kaden]

Hahahaha...

You don't install an entire game onto your HDD. Specific files are installed onto the console's Hard Drive so they can be accessed faster.

[Kole T. Merr]

I'm enjoying the new update, or the NXE as they like to call it. Mostly I just like the Netflix though. I'm piggybacking on my brother's girlfriend's Netflix account, and she lets us have access to her instant queue so we can basically watch whatever we want. It's sweet. They have some really random stuff on instant queue. All the seasons of Xena and Hercules for example.

As for the new look the dashboard has taken, there are some good things as well as some bad. The XBOX button menu is better than it used to be, imo. I do understand the frustration with the themes. You can still apply them, but they only kinda crapppily work.