@ Modfather: Are the trophy rooms and social games we’ve seen footage of in the beta you’re participating in? How are they?

@ Simes: Ah yeah, I was trying to make that point in my previous paragraph. ;)

@ Tony: From what I can tell of footage I’ve seen, the Blades aren’t entirely back, but only appear when you hit the guide button, in a much smaller, stripped-down form. Which is interesting.

I have a pre-HDMI premium 360 and a 120GB hard drive (long story), so installing games to the hard drive sounds immensely useful.

@ Martin: Of course I remember you! :D The only reason it’s taken me so long to post something is that I’ve been busy on an industrial placement for University. The idea of evil Miis made me laugh, though… I had so much fun with Chao in Sonic Adventure.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MajorNelson/~3/336447749/some-of-the-features-in-the-new-xbox-experience-8-person-chat-vga-plus-more.aspx

“· Dashboard built into the new Xbox Guide. For everyone who loves the blades interface, it’s not going away; they are now built directly in to the new Xbox guide. Every feature and option is available right from the guide. You can even access your full games library at all times. No matter where you are (in dash or in game), immediately call up your games played list and directly launch a game.”

So no losing the blades! Also:

“· Play from hard drive. Copy your games from the game disc and play directly from the hard drive. Not only will the drive not spin, but load times are quicker, as well. Of course, you will still need the disc in the tray to prove you own the game.”

Utterly useless for me with a 20gb drive, but useful for some I suppose.

That party thing is long overdue though.

I think the Party system they’ve announced is ace, though. Form your group of mates before you start a game and take it from one game to another? Yes please.

Great post! E3 is always an exciting time and I have to say, this dashboard announcement has me a bit confused. On one hand, it’s blatantly a doppelganger of the Mii system (I can hear the wheels of the bandwagon straining under the pressure) and I don’t think it’s a good fit for the console’s core demographic.

However, the Itunes style interface of flipping through games looks neat and the Neflix pics show that the range of films can only get better. But it’s honestly as if they have seen what other devs have done and hand picked an element here or a design choice there.

If it’s functional and fast then I wont mind though, the look is all cosmetic anyways :)

I’m of the same thought as Laura on this one, although I could just be getting that “change is evil” feeling I sometimes get.

Of course, one thing I’d like to know…what about those that spent MS Points on Gamer Pictures and Theme’s? Will they carry across into this new dashboard somehow? If not, I can imagine a lot of people will be feeling quite frustrated.

I don’t like the Wii because its too Wii-ish, please don’t turn my 360 into it as well. Come on MS, instead of cute little avatars, give us Gears style renders…now that, would be nice.

No mention of making Live free…which is what I was really hoping for.

I don’t mind a bit of change but I really don’t want a Mii-Like avatar, they’re far too cutsey and a bit too cheesy for me.

I do like my dashboard the way it is at the moment but I may prefer the new style you never know.
If it’s not optional I will not allow myself to like it, at least for a while. :)

All we can do is wait and see.

When I first saw the blades system I thought it was adequate, but as time passes it just appears to be more and more creaky. After one of the Dashboard updates made it much faster, I was delighted, but now it still seems too slow and clunky for my liking.

As for Mii like avatars, I don’t think the 360 is really the place for it.

Anyway, certainly sounds interesting. I’m waiting until E3 blows over to start looking into the announcements (mostly because I know you’ll tell me anyway, and also because half the announcements I don’t particularly care about myself, so it’s just easier to find them later on the sites pertaining to what DOES affect me personally), but this certainly sounds like an interesting move. I guess I’m lucky I’m still looking for that sweet deal before I pick up a 360, so I haven’t had time to get used to one UI over another yet.

(psst. psst. Hi Scott. c: )

Hi all, BTW! This is my first blog post, so please be nice. :)

It would be good to have to option of two different way in browsing you XBL. I think keeping the blade system would be a good option if you do not want that simple text bases browsing for a quicker option?