Just after 10am this morning my Xbox prompted me to download the update. A quick restart of the machine and it continued. Pretty painless. Then the, what I would call, intro video ran and it was into NXE feet first. I signed into LIVE and it asked me to pick an avatar as my base. Messed around and came up with something that looks nothing like me!!
Navigation is pretty straight forward. Everything is still there, just better presented. I don?t check the Marketplace much, just the odd game demo download, but it looks a lot better, and more inviting. Probably what Microsoft was looking for.
The guide button brings up blades like the old dashboard, even in game, so you can do things the old way if you still need to. A nice touch is when you gain achivement points. A quick press of the guide button and the achivement list for the game you are playing pops up and lets you see what you got the gamer points for!!
One of the features people have been looking forward to is the ability to copy a game from disc to the hard drive. This is to cut down on noise and curb wear and tear on the drive and discs. The centre plastic on my COD 4 disc is not far from shattering!! To copy the game to the HD just highlight it on the dashboard (under My Xbox), press Y, and select Install To HD. A little while later it will be done. You still need the disc in the drive to play it though!!
Most gamers will welcome a lot of the features the new update has given us. A few might think it has gone all Nintendo with the Mii?s avatars. I think it?s cool.
I can?t wait to see what everyone looks like on LIVE now!!