New Xbox Experience Looks Kind Of Shite, No?
I know it’s unfair to condemn something before it’s even made its way to our 360s. After all, as my post regarding my hatred of sci-fi and my consequent love of Mass Effect proved, you can’t judge a book by its cover. But what you can do is develop initial impressions then rant about them on your blog!
Everywhere I look at the moment, various updated screenshots of the New Xbox Experience are being published onto the internets, yet friends of mine and readers of this blog have been fairly quiet on what their initial impressions on it are. From the moment this new-look and dramatic overhaul of the dashboard was revealed at E3 this year, I’ve been anti-NXE, mainly spouting much abuse towards the ridiculous Avatars we have to adopt.
Swapping my colourfully cute, cartoon superhero-wannabe for a characterised Ashley Baxter doesn’t sit well with me for various reasons. Firstly, you can’t deny that the Avatars carry an unsettling resemblance to the Nintendo Wii’s Miis (sounds funny to say that aloud, right?), taking a less realistic approach than that of the PlayStation 3’s Avatars. At least that is what first popped into my head when the Avatars were originally unveiled back in July: “Wait… I thought this was Microsoft’s keynote?”. My problem with this is largely down to irritation; I’m sure I wouldn’t have such an issue with Avatars if Microsoft had come up with the use of them first and implemented them from the beginning. But from where I’m sitting, they’re a tacky add-on which have wasted a bunch of money I’ve spent up until this point on GamerPictures.
Secondly, and this is getting into territory I’ve never really discussed, I’ve chosen to keep my identity on Xbox Live fairly ‘neutral’ - for lack of a better word. I didn’t choose a ‘tag that would reveal my gender so obviously, nor have I opted for an ultra feminine GamerPicture. I know anyone that accesses this blog can immediately see I’m female, but on Xbox Live - because of the abundance of weirdos, some of which I have already had the misfortune of coming across - it’s probably not a great idea to flaunt the fact you have a vagina (if you do indeed have a vagina). I know female gamers who have a hard enough time from guys assuming they’re girls because of their ‘Tag and GamerPicture, provoking some of the less sociably adept boys to send XBL messages full of sexual innuendos and what not. With your Avatar, as far as I can tell, there’s going to be no way around this problem; it’s all laid out on the table for everyone to see, so to speak.
Thirdly, and this goes for the NXE on a whole as opposed to just the avatars, I feel the direction Microsoft is taking the Dashboard in is definitely a less mature approach to what we currently have. To me this feels as though Microsoft is changing the direction too late in the console’s life, and purely catering for the more casual gamer they’re trying to land in terms of aesthetics. Yes, we know Nintendo has opened the eyes to how lucrative and big the casual gaming market is, and yes, we know Microsoft wants in on the action after becoming so well known for producing shooter after shooter. But to do it when, in my opinion, the 360 has its target audience well and truly established is just going to piss off a lot of the long-time 360 owners. The only screenshot I’ve seen so far that I felt was an improvement over what we currently have, was the marketplace section for downloading trailers or DLC from a particular game. It looks better from a user interface perspective, and sexier to boot!
Going back to the Avatars, I don’t know the extent of character customization, and frankly I don’t care whether I have 3 hairstyles to choose from or 30. I wish I could keep one of the many GamerPictures I’ve purchased over the years. But hey, at least we can keep our themes, right? I currently have a Viva Pinata theme, which mainly consists of close-ups of the characters in the game. If you take a look at the impending Dashboard update you’ll see a gray blob covering a good half of the theme. So while Microsoft has been quick to boast you can still use whatever Themes you’ve bought and downloaded, they’re 50% obscured by grayness…
I know I’ve ranted about the aesthetics and completely brushed over the new features and functionality. But meh, those Avatars really are damn ugly. I’m really looking forward to seeing if I’m alone in these sentiments, so leave a comment and let me know!
EDIT: I came across this post 2 minutes ago, which basically says creating an Avatar is mandatory, but if you’re not hot on the idea, you never have to use it. Not sure how this will work. Only time will tell!
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Asshats on XBL are common, but picking up grils and sending sexually-flavoured messages through XBL - first time I’ve heard of it and honestly - WTF is wrong with these people? :/
Infinite Undiscovery is completely different to all other JRPGs I’ve played, solely for the fact it’s real time, not turn based. It’s been met with a lot of weak reviews, and as with any RPG, it’s difficult to comment having only put a handful of hours in. While nowhere near as strong as Lost Odyssey, I’m still enjoying my journey as the unassuming hero, Capell.
Sam Brown