Gamerscore Blog

Looks awesome, can't wait for the update to come out.

I am all for it!  More importantly, my wife and 6 year old daughter perked up and took notice and in that I would say "mission accomplished".  
The NXE could truly bridge the gap between the (children always considered) Wii and the (new big scary black box) PS3, making the 360 the "people's choice".  
Properly advertised, this could be HUGE, and for the hardcore (me included) it means more attention to the industry, which in turn means better experiences for those of us that have been into gaming for years.  

In the words of Michael Scott "that is a Win-Win-Win".  :-)

this looks sooooo cool I can't wait for it... :(

Burp?  There's actually a burp control?

We have three boys at home.  The oldest is 8.  You know what they're going to do with this ALL DAY, don't you?

My wife is going to hate you.  ;)

I saw in the Avatar screen that there's a "Gamer Picture" option, with a camera next to it. Does that allow you to take a picture of your avatar to use as a gamerpic? Because that would be pretty cool.

i beleive he said My XBOX "channel".

Are you really trying that hard to be nintendo?

This is just asking for people to cal you copycats...

It looks like Avatars are going to be mandatory. After the update to the new Xbox Dashboard you are going to be presented with a number of randomly generated Avatars and you have to select one. You are not going to be forced to update it and use it but you will have to pick one.

The ambient music in the back of the Dashboard is a bit Wii like. Was Avatar burping sound effect in the video was taken from Fable?

I think the Avatars do look much more like actual game charactors than Miis. I am cautiously optimistic about Avatars and think they are going to be a good addition to the Xbox.

Looking a lot better than I imagined. Nice video, thanks.

Whoa, I can't wait for AVATARS! Go Microsoft!

@Jake - Yes, avatars are a part of the dashboard update, and integral to the new Xbox experience.

If you hate them, for whatever reason, you can simply hit "A" a few times to select one of the defaults and skip past all the customization process.

Ctrl Alt Del  you realize that the avatars were in design long before nintendos mii's right? they were still making them more customizable and testing them when nintendo launched em then they decided they would wait for the new 360 os as to avoid scripting errors between the jump

well this update is shaping up pretty nice.just as i imagined :)

can you make multiple avatars?

what is this I see about the "vision camera"

map your face to your avatar? god, make it so!

@ Matt

You do realize that Rare was designing the characters for a separate game until microsoft saw Nintendo's Mii's and decided to borrow it for their new dashboard.

Off topic

Is it possible to still get the hurricane pack on XBL for the original Ninja Gaiden? I am playing the game on my Xbox 360 using B.C. but I don’t see an option to download the update.

I believe Ninja Gaiden Black was released as an Xbox original title for marketplace on the Xbox 360 and I wasn’t sure if support for the original version of the game had been discontinued

Thank you

Looks good, I would have loved to have seen the "Gamer Picture" related options in the avatar area explored however.

The background music and sound effects are ridiculous.  Thanks for turning my once-cool media hub into a freakin' Wii.

Know what else is Nintendo-like....making consoles! I can't believe you are making consoles, it is so copy-cat. Okay I will end my sarcasm. Seriously this is a very nice bit of music. Does it sound like the wii? Well, if you are asking if it is calming music, then yes it is. Would you rather have Korn? Anyways, it is just an ambient piece. If you want to listen to Michael Jackson, rip the cd and listen to it. Heck, call your Avatar Billy Jean.

YouTube link?

Are those sounds really there? I really hope you can turn them off or change for the old ones. And I don't want any background music on my dashboard. Otherwise than sounds it looks great.

List of things i think when i saw the new avatars comming.

I didn't see chains or any jewelry option besides rings.

Some archivements should give in the near future new clothing for the avatar, like t-shirt and hats.

Some clothing included by default in the next update should contain some pre-released games branded clothing, like GoW 1, GRAW, Viva Piñata, Guitar Hero and others.

New clothing options and configurations, like new faces, head styles or animations could be delivered every 6 month or so. I remember games like Gunbound (http://gunbound.softnyx.net/07_avatar/02_avatar.asp?IT=set&page=) have clothing configurations very very cute and nice for teenagers and bigger. Also, in a interview with a developer of the new NXE, it said the avatar will go by +-20% or so in the size of the body. But, after seeing the video, the head still the same size as a skinny or fat persona.

Caching and pre-caching the images for the avatar configuration is a must. Loading every time i switch a panel for the faces options is not cool at all. Pre-loading all the images in the Avatar Customization "Channel" will be great. Since is avaiable only in the NXE, and not using the Mini-Pseudo-Dashboard, i don't see any issue related to memory.

Have a feature to shutdown completly the avatar display, in the NXE and in the new 8-channel voice chat room is a must too. Is cool that my buddy made his avatar as cool as he wanted, but i don't see the need to show it to everyone if they don't have any feeling with this personas. Say Hardcore gamers or just old gamers.

Displaying the friend list is a concern to my at this point. I assume that you people are working against the clock, from developers and desingners touching and adjusting everything to fit and displaying in a familiar and intuitive way. But, as the friends list is now, i think you people will offer a second and very similar way as is now. Since the personas displaying as a group of people for me is a very cool and nice approach to innovate, listing the friends displaying the avatar/gamerpic pictures is a nice option to have in the Mini Dashboard when the avatars displaying is not welcome and want a quick and familiar way as is now.

I have more things to say, but i think is good for now. Excuse my grammar and typos.

One more thing.

I came to the idea for caching the friend's avatars. Writing a xml file in to the memory with the configuration of the avatar clothing, the same moment it loads.

Since the caching shouldn't expire in next few hours, until xbox live sends the updated avatar of some friend who has changed recently, i feel we will get a nice and lag-less experience with this feature using the avatars.

This also can apply to the games/picture/video listing of the console content. Every time the console downloads something, it update the already created xml file for the current category, let's say games demos.

Having the xml file listing the games, and having a picture file too IN HI-RES PLEASE, the hard drive dosen't seeks and fills anymore the list of current content in the console, unless there is a know update in to it, by deleting, moving, or downloading some content.

Offer a flush option to the xmls files in the Memory Options could solve a file corruption if the powers goes down for a unlucky xbox user just right when the xml file is being write it.

What are the Stars on some of the accessories?  Is that what is already selected or is some kind of premium content that we would have to pay for?

So there's no way to not have an avatar in the new dashboard? I thought we could still use the old system if we hated this new style (and yes, some of us truly hate it). I don't want or need an avatar to play games, and honestly don't want to be bothered with it... at all.

If I wanted this nonsense I'd still by playing Wii

When I like the Avatars...but....are you "only" adding a new look and feel or will you upgrade for example the video codecs aswell? Like MP4 AC3 instead of stereo, play MKV's right out of the box etc...

The only thing i see on the web is the new look...well nice but i like more features...

I really hope this "NXE" moniker doesn't stick.

is this going to be a free update?

@ CPaladino

Are you saying that in order to be able to continue using Live one HAS to update, and thus be forced to create a Mii, and furthermore have no way of disabling the blasted things?

The former contradicts statements made by Major Nelson and is the one slightly redeeeming feature of this whole avatar farce, at least for me.

In short, will I HAVE to suffer the bloody thing staring at me whenever I turn my 360 on or can I banish it's infantile idiocy to digital hell never to annoy me again?

-Face777

@ CPaladino

Are you saying that in order to be able to continue using Live one HAS to update, and thus be forced to create a Mii, and furthermore have no way of disabling the blasted things?

The latter contradicts statements made by Major Nelson and is the one slightly redeeeming feature of this whole avatar farce, at least for me.

In short, will I HAVE to suffer the bloody thing staring at me whenever I turn my 360 on or can I banish it's infantile idiocy to digital hell never to annoy me again?

-Face777

@face777 - To continue using LIVE you must get the NXE update.

To get the NXE update also means you need to make an avatar (although as Larry pointed out, you can select one of the defaults.)

@Chris Paladino - Thanks for the swift response, but my question was more IF we haVE to make one (which you have just confirmed we do), do we have the option of disabling them and NOT have them on our screen constantly, or are all us haters being forced to suffer by a very poor planning decision?

On aesthetics and general principle, I'm VERY tempted to switch to PS3 for the bulk of my gaming if I HAVE to have one, because as you may be able to tell I am very much against these bite-sized kiddypleasers

So, it's officially fall today...where's the update?!  Hehe, just kidding guys!

I heard that even though we have to get the NXE update, we don't have to use it. We can switch back to the old blade dashboard. Is that true? I like the NXE update, and I plan on using it and creating an avatar, but I just wanted to make sure about all the information.

@face777 - IMO, I think the PS3 takes it even farther than Nintendo and MS with 'HOME'.  Also notice that the Avatar is not visible all of the time in the demos that I've seen of the new dash...just in select menus...err..."channels"

@FroBoy11: The blade system as you know it is gone.  The xbox guide button will now launch a series of blades in the middle of the screen instead of one blade to the left of the screen.  You cannot return to the old blade system.

I love the avatars!

Something else, what also want to know is if there will be an option to turn on/off v-sync in the new xbox experience. Can you please adress this? Thanks in advance!

Kind regards!