Article 3

Xbox 360 Dashboard Gets a New Look
Ryan Bissonnette

Since the Xbox 360 was released on November 22, 2005 by Microsoft Corporation, the systems firmware had been constantly receiving updates via the Xbox Live service. These updates seemed to be very minimal and didn't have any noticable changes for the average gamer for they would either just update the systems ability to run new software and changed what items were availabe for purchase in the marketplace. At the world-famous, E3, Microsoft held a press conference to show how they would use their console to compete with their rivals in the near future. Their visionary plan consisted of a firmware update like no other that would revolutionize the Xbox 360 experience forever. It is scheduled to be released on November 19, 2008 and is called NXE 2.0.7356.0.

This new firmware update for the Xbox 360's dashboard completely re-creates the original dashboard interface; making it much easier to navigate as well as adding some awesome new features. The first, most noticeable improvement, is the inclusion of the ability to create avatars for one's gamer profile. Much like Nintendo's Miis or the Playstation 3's Home Avatars, these characters can be created to depict the player and be used as a "profile picture" for their Gamertag. As expected from Microsoft, this avatar system is far from shallow. There are hundreds of different options for ones avatar in all of the different categories. These avatars can be substituted for the previously used Gamer Pictures that are tied to Gamertags and will appear on your friends list to symbolize ones online friends.

Though the avatars can add some level of entertainment to the Xbox 360 experience, the most outstanding feature is definitely the Party system. This newly implemented system consists of allowing the player and up to 8 friends enter a chat room of sorts together and talk to each other as well as share photos. While in a party, the players can all play certain Xbox Live Arcade games together and even watch movies through the newly licensed Netflix Channel. So basically, if the leader of the party wants to watch Goodburger, he can choose to and the rest of the party will see the movie launch on their own tv screen even if they are across the world. With the new party system, online multiplayer has been taken to a completely different level.

A more extensive list of added and improved features with the update can be viewed below in the following chart.

User Interface changes

* Completely redefined GUI (Similar to Windows Media Center).
o New pop-up/in-game Live Guide, using a redesigned version of the blades interface
o New sound effects
o Ability to preview your own themes before setting them.
* Support for 1440x900 and 1680x1050 16:10 resolutions (displays with black bars) over VGA and HDMI (when using DVI)

Xbox Live changes

* Xbox Live Party allowing for 8 person chat and image sharing.
* Fully customizable Avatars for use in upcoming games and on Xbox Live. (Some current games will also receive an update on November 19th to support the new Avatars)

* Access Xbox Live Marketplace on a PC via Xbox.com with the ability to queue downloads to the xbox.
* Ability to watch Netflix movies on your Xbox 360. (You must be in the US, a Gold Xbox Live member, and a Netflix Subscriber)

Game changes

* Option to install games to hard drive in order to decrease load times and to make the hardware quieter. The disc must still be present for the game to load.
* Information from Xbox Live regarding the game in your disc tray.
* Quick Launch for launching games on your console
* Ability to remove games with 0 gamerscore from your profiles played games list
* Auto Start - Option to set whether you want the disc to run/or stay idle when the disc tray closes with a game or media disc inside, by default its set to run

This list of new features is enough to get any 360 owner excited for the upcoming week. Be sure to look for the update on November 19, 2008.