The New Xbox Experience: Critiques and Congratulations

MASSbackwards

We’ve had a couple of weeks to dip our toes into the New Xbox Experience, the massive overhaul of the once static blade user interface of the Xbox 360.  First and foremost, this is a very welcome and needed change.  The pizazz factor alone is worth the update.  That said, there’s a lot of room for improvement.

CRITIQUES

Still too Complex

I thought the NXE was supposed to make things easier to find.  I must say that while everything looks very nice, I didn’t find anything particularly easier to find at all.  For example, on the Spotlight menu, there was a graphic for community games.  But instead of actually selecting it and being brought to a full selection of said games, your given a bunch of information instead that leads you nowhere.  No, instead you have to go to the Games Marketplace channel and dig around there. 

That is but one example of how things structurally don’t appear to have changed much at all despite the massive visual overhaul.  You even still have to access certain funtions using the guide button you had before, for another example.  Things really need to be brought up to the surface and out from the depths of multiple menu paths. 

Avatars

Awesome!  I’ve created my unique avatar, and the little guy is ready to go.  OK, now what?  

Once you’ve got your avatar created there is really nothing else you can do with him or her.  They stand mawkishly in the My Xbox menu, occasionally checking themselves out and giving you a wave.  Right now you can only use them in three Arcade games, with A Kingdom for Keflings being the only one worthwhile.  We’re told that once the Game Show channel launches they’ll be fully featured in these online multiplayer arenas, but until then they’re mostly useless.

For that matter, can we have more options for creation?  Try as I might, I couldn’t get mine to really actually look like me.  Hopefully they expand this over time…

Community Games Trial Versions

Rather than the more satisfying option as with most XBLA games of playing a section or two in the trial version, trial versions of the community games feature are subject to a strict time limit.  And when I say strict, I mean within minutes the trial will boot you out.  Considering it takes longer to download than it does to play, I can’t help but feel like I wasted my time.  

By extending the playability of the trial versions, it would allow gamers to actually get a good feel for the game they’re thinking of purchasing.  As of right now, all I can think of is that they’re trying to hide something, and that surely doesn’t inspire confidence in a purchase.

Games I never played still show up in my achievement lists

Since every game I’ve played is represented by a graphic in the My Xbox menu, XBLA games that I only played the trial version for showing up and taking up space is a huge annoyance.  I must have played over one hundred of these at this point, and since you can’t get achievements for trial versions of games there is absolutely no point whatsoever in their inclusion with a full space-consuming graphic.  It just makes it harder to find the profiles for the games I actually do have achievements for. 

CONGRATULATIONS

Beautiful

There’s not doubt about it: This looks approximately one thousand times better than the blade system we had before.  Everything is very visual, if you will, with large tiles featuring full pictures with minimal print, some of which are even animated. 

Premium Themes

Oh joy!  Themes were completely handicapped in the blade interface, with layers of text obscuring the background and some themes making it difficult to read the text.  Clearly they were not designed to go hand in hand. 

With the New Xbox Experience, Premium Themes are designed with NXE in mind.  These themes are given a great deal of real estate at the top of the screen allowing you to actually see the background without much obstruction.  Furthermore, they implement little stages consistent with the background for your Friends menu, with each friend’s avatar placed on these unique stages.  It’s really quite clever and looks great.

Friends Menu/Party System

As mentioned just above, the Friends menu looks most impressive with theme specific stages on which your friend’s avatars are placed.  Cycling through them is much more appealing than the simple list we had with the previous menu.

Moreover, the new party system allows you to see all of the avatars of all of the friends gathered in one of your friend’s parties.  They’re all standing about closely together, animating nicely, and can be selected to view their profiles and compare games.  For that matter, you can join right in if it isn’t already full. 

Community Games

Finally, the promise of XNA is unleashed upon us.  Whether you think the games mostly stink (which they kinda do) or their the bee’s knees in creativity, there’s nothing cooler than having a seemingly endless stream of games for your Xbox 360 created by enthusiasts just like you and I. 

There are already dozens of games available with the ability to get a trial version taste of each (with the above noted critique taken into account).  There are surely going to be real gems and creative genious come out of this endeavour.  We’ll just have to wade through the junk first before we get to them.

My Xbox Menu

Notwithstanding the above noted critique, I love the layout of the My Xbox menu, specifically the portion that lays out your achievements.  Each game you’ve played is devoted a large graphic detailing they achievement points earned and each achievement.  Select the game and the graphic opens up wider giving you much great real estate to view your achievements and the ones you have yet to earn.  Nicely done.

LOOKING FORWARD

As far as we’re concerned, the New Xbox Experience is a big hit.  But there’s still room for improvement.  Offering more avatar customization options and really getting them integrated into everything are key to bringing these cute little fellas alive and realizing their potential.  The release of the Game Show functionality should go a long way towards making this happen. 

Also, it still needs simplifying and dumbing down.  If they really want to appeal to a more casual crowd, the slick interface isn’t enough.  It’s got to be as upfront, transparent, and intuitive as possible, and it just isn’t there yet. 

peachey @ December 3, 2008