NXE: New Xbox Experience

New and improved.

After an impressively sized media campaign (at least among gamers), Microsoft's overhaul of the Xbox 360 interface is here. It's very much the first of its kind - decent-sized interfaces have only been around for the last couple of generations, and none have been given a complete makeover before. So what's it like? Read on to find out!

The Avatars

After getting everything up and running, which probably took about 10 minutes top for me, the Avatars were the first thing I encountered. Everything went relatively smoothly, and I was soon the proud creator of my very own Avatar.

These mini versions of you are eerily like the missing link between Nintendo's Mii's and Sony's own characters from their forthcoming Home program. It's like Microsoft want to be a bit of everything, and have placed themselves squarely in between the other two consoles. Still, the Avatars are pretty cool, and the customisation options are wide enough to make something that looks vaguely like you. Clothing options are more limited, but more clothing packs have been promised - and apparently, at least the first couple will be free.

The Interface

The rest of the interface also straddles that line between Nintendo cute and Sony slickness. Overall, I think it's a welcome upgrade from the 'blades' interface - it runs a lot smoother, looks cooler, and feels like there's a lot more information at your fingertips. It may take some getting used to, but I was scrolling through the basic stuff in no time. Being a bit of a graphics nut, I really appreciated the bigger emphasis on bright, pretty pictures.

There have, however, been reports of the interface freezing, and it happened to me as I was browsing my friends list. So be careful! Hopefully Microsoft is working super hard to fix up any problems.

The blades aren't completely gone, however - when you hit the Xbox button on your controller during a game, a mini-blades interface will pop up. It's far, far better than what was there before, giving you access to a large number of features, in a much better layout.

The new ‘My Xbox’ section lays out much the same information about your profile, albeit in a much prettier way. You can see at a glance which games you’ve been playing recently, what your Avatar looks like, your Gamerscore, and all that jazz. It also sports easier access to your media than before, something Microsoft is deliberately emphasizing.

The Games Channel

While we obviously don't have access to the Netflix features enjoyed by Americans, we can still take advantage of other features, such as installing games to the hard drive. This one's pretty cool - while loading times weren't cut by as much as I would have liked, it still made Fable 2 perform better. And perhaps more importantly, it really cut down the noise level coming from the 360. If you've got a large enough hard drive, it's recommended - although just keep in mind you'll still need to have the proper disc in the drive.

The games channel in general gives you much easier access to everything you own, whether they’re Arcade titles, Xbox Originals, or whatever else. Having a greater emphasis on graphics really helps here – it’s good seeing cover art for your games scroll past.

The Community

The Avatars don’t just sit there looking cool – you can join them together with your friends to make a party, which can then head into a game together. In practice, this thing works great, for the most part – popping in and out of games and remaining together in a group is ace. This is something I’d like to see all the console makers do – having a unified structure like this is an excellent step forward.


The Marketplace

Like everything else, the online marketplace has received a facelift as well. It’s probably most obvious here, actually – it’s a world away from the old interface that made it hard to find titles.

One welcome new feature is the ability to view preview screenshots and – in some cases – trailers too. It makes it easier than ever to get an idea of the game you may or may not buy. There are even a couple of new, Avatar-focused game available – look out for our impressions of them soon. Microsoft sure are going to town with their Mii-stealing…

Other than that, everything's mainly cosmetic. But cosmetic can be important - and on that level, it seems like Microsoft might have accomplished its goal of straddling the divide between hardcore and casual. The Avatars look good (I think I prefer the graphical style to the Miis), the whole thing runs more smoothly (when it doesn't freeze), and it all looks more bright, colourful, and useful. And it's free, so who can complain?

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