f13.net

I won't have a hands-on until this evening, but early reports are that it is largely advertisement-riddled ass.  Anyone else get this yet?  Do I need to disco from the network so I can continue to enjoy my games?

Been  using it for about 2 weeks now, pretty much ad free.

Better keep in mind that my xbox stays offline 99% of the time.

The ripping to HD thing is kinda useful, and the dash is far faster, especially when accessed mid-game. Avatars are meh.

This is coming from the idiots who are so fucking stupid they refuse to acknowledge the last blade of the "ads" that says "HIDE THIS CHANNEL PERMANENTLY."

God I hate some of the people on live.

If it is indeed faster, then that's great.  And it's not like the current dashboard is ad-free.  I just don't want to lose my Frank West picture.  I'd cry.

My 360 did a RROD the other day.

I haven't tried it again since Wrath of the Lich King came out.

The Netflix thing does pique my interest, though.

Then again, Hulu is amazing.

Did the install earlier.  The dashboard now reminds me of the XMB or the Zune interface turned sideways and is super fast.  Hitting the guide button basically calls up the old 'blades' if you're more of a traditionalist.

Installing to HDD is nice for games like Fable 2 which caused the optical drive to thrash all the time.  Ads are still there, but they're not as obtrusive as they used to be.

You can still keep/use your old gamer pictures, fortunately.

Looking forward to NetFlix, though there's apparently been some issues with registration due to heavy traffic.

(http://i38.tinypic.com/71lkk2.jpg)

You know about PlayOn right?

I used that last night for the first time.  Chuck on Hulu on my TV from my 360.

<3

I like the installability aspect. Not so keen on the overall look and feel so far. Wish I could skip the Miis entirely, if I can be bothered I'll try to make mine look as much like Freddy Mercury as possible.

Why can't I change my goddamn hair color?

Its there. You might have to select your hairstyle again to bring up the color menu.

I hate the layout of things. I feel like I have to scroll and scroll and scroll just to see which of my friends are online.  They took out the groupings of videos too, so now instead of all being arranged under whatever game they represent, if you have more than 1 video for something, they're spread all over based on name. I'm really hoping there's options I haven't had time to find to rearrange things better.

The Mii-toos look awful and are really shameless ripoffs. They aren't nearly customizable enough and the existing options aren't enough either. It really makes a difference being able to move your features around and such on real Miis. Even selecting them has a similar animation to picking up Miis. My Mii-too looks like retarded, lobotomized overly happy dimension X version of someone who vaguely looks like me. I can't even put a 5 O'clock shadow on because the one they offer looks like chocolate smeared on your face.

The actual interface - meh, I buy systems to play games, not to navigate menus. I hear the party stuff is nice though.

Netflix is a HUGE win.  I've been using Play-On for some time and the quality of the built in stuff is so far superior its not even funny. 
As for the rest... meh... Pretty much every other item on the Left/Right portion of the system is some kind of ad.  Which seems bad but really is it that much different from what we had?

You can still use the Xbox button to access a much faster version of all the menus.

Why exactly am I making a bobblehead?

Because Microsoft has no fucking clue what they're doing?

To get a +1 to a SPECIAL attribute.

It was Seinfeld's idea.

I installed Fable II to disk and I can vouch for there being a noticeable shortening in load times, which is good since Fable II is a dog.

The menus themselves aren't terribly annoying, like I feared.  Looks like the iTouch album browser, except there's a crappy Mii in there sometimes.  They are indeed faster, and Frank West is still in there somewhere.  I particularly like how you can easily see downloadable content for a game without having to navigate into the store menu.

The avatars.  How the hell does someone underperform a ripoff of a simplistic Nintendo idea?  I mean, really.  These things have about the same level of customization as a MetaPlace avatar.  I know that they are going to charge us for clothes and junk, but the fact that I cannot put the eyes underneath the mouth is just sad.  I don't think I can even make the ubiquitous Hitler, which is a big fail.  Even Nintendo gave us Hitler mustaches.

This. IMO the new friends list is ASS. I was pretty disappointed with it. I like the *idea" behind the NXE, but it seems like I have to scroll much more to find anything. Maybe I am missing some stuff.

(http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/Boot%20Stackhead/avatar-body.png)

Well that was fun for about ten minutes.

How much room does Fable II (or any typical game I guess) take to install on an Xbox hard drive?

I think it was right around 7GB.  I'd imagine other games are similar.

Edit:  Found a fairly complete list on GAF (http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=341808).

Alternately, it could be a +10 to barter, and I think we all know by now no one wants that, but that might be bringing this metaphor way too close to home.

Damn.  This is just sad, Bioware.

I don't think when they made the game that they expected a system update that allowed you to install to the HD. Same with Halo 3 which actually loads slower from the HD than the DVD.

Oh, sure, but hardcoded elevator rides?  I mean, I was thinking it was a load screen but now that I know it was a design decision, I'm a tad annoyed.

Actually, if you used those teleport points they gave, you could have noticed that the elevators are REAL elevators, with static speed and all. Teleporting always gave a way faster loading time.

Yay for immersion?  :awesome_for_real:

How will you get your galactic news updates without elevator rides!

On my PipBoy.

What teleporters?

Great list, thanks.  I grabbed a cheap (well, cheaper than retail but still overpriced) 120GB drive a couple days ago thinking the installs would be big.  Looks like I'll keep it.

Now I just need an Arcade.     :uhrr:

According to CAG, you might have luck finding a 120GB 360 HDD for under $100 at Circuit City.  No idea how long it'll last at that price.

For those hating on the friends list setup:

Right bumper sends you through the list at intervals of 5 (I think, it's some interval) allowing you to navigate through your friends faster.

Also, the left and right trigger navigate to My Xbox, Spotlight or one other tab with great speed.

That's where I grabbed the 120GB drive.  I was running errands and decided to duck into Circuit City to try my luck.  It was still marked at full price but it rang up at $99, and I was able to use a $15 coupon at the desk on it after buying a candy bar. 

I figured $85 for this drive is as cheap as I'm going to see it, and will let me install games aplenty for when I build my Voltron Xbox out of an Arcade.

So do you pretty much HAVE to have a 60gb or 120gb drive for this to be useful at all?

You could still do it with a 20gb but you could probably only have one game installed at a time.

I saw a 360 hard drive clearanced at 50% off at two Targets in the past week. I'm pretty sure it was the 120gb, may have been the 60.

Click (http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/xbox360/file/930279/50978)

It's the rapid transit thingie.

I RRODd just before the update.

So that's still happening, in case anyone was wondering.  According to UPS, my Xbox just left Oklahoma City an hour ago on its way to Mesquite, Texas for a colonoscopy.  I wouldn't have cared as much except that it was our only DVD player. 

Way to go Microsoft QA

I clicked on the NXE live weekend celebration thing and Now I"m stuck.  I am clicking the back button, and I see the "B" button lighting up on the screen but I can't get back to the main menu.  GG

Other then that I think I like it

Netflix instant queue is awesome.

Yes I agree.  I watched a bunch of stuff yesterday with the Netflix client and am quite happy.

I'm disappointed they haven't improved the scrolling through videos and music on pcs.  It's still a pain to go through 1400 albums and artists :<  My zen does it better

I just had an epiphany. 

The time, money, and effort spent on this pointless shit could have been spent getting the rest of the X Box's games workable on the 360.

So I have a dumb little avatar that is in some ways superior to the shitty ones on the Wii I don't care about, in others inferior.

Instead I could be able to play Gungriffon, Gunvalkyrie, Jaws Unleashed, Mech Assault 1, Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance, Robotech Invasion, Jedi Outcast, Timesplitters Future Perfect, X Men Legends, Taito Legends, Midway Arcade Treasures, Street Fighter Anniversary Collection, and Capcom Classics Collection Volume 1.

I know not all of the above are great games or even good ones, but I sure would like to play them all again.  I also know a few of the above aren't there so we can pay 5 dollars a game on XBLA for a title that came with around 20 of its cousins for 20 bucks.  (Luckily enough I was able to get Midway Treasures 2 for 10 bucks for the PS2 so as to replace that one.  A few later retro collections I made sure to only buy the PS2 version.)

Lack of BC is what has completely removed any desire I have to own Sony's overpriced shitbox of marketplace failure.

Instead Microsoft, who OWES ME for making a machine built heavily out of half chewed bubblegum and dried jizm gives us an irrelevant OS upgrade instead of more old games to play.

DICKS!

OK...  You're really got to quit sharing.   :awesome_for_real: 

I don't think Microsoft is really trying to do anything more with the retro-gamer crowd than milk them through XBL and the downloadable originals. What do they gain for fixing backwards compatibility for decidedly niche crap titles? Good will? They've pissed that away with the RROD. New sales? How many basement dwellers are on the fence because they're not buying a 360 unless their copy of fucking Jaws Unleashed will run on it.  Fixing more BC just negates future DL only sales.

Lack of decent BC hurts the PS3 I think very little.  Hell, I got over it, and I'm holding onto a bunch of games like they're going age like fine wine.  They'll likely just gather dust rather than see any significant play time.  I'm just keeping my PS2 on the off chance that I'll play the one or two series I own that don't work well on the PS3 (still wish I had a 60gig).   Are you going to run out of composite/component slots on your TV or something?

Still, this is a largely stupid waste of money on their part.  Just not for the cooky reasons you state. The OLD UI was just fine albeit a little clunky.  Hell, they could have done the new UI without the dumb avatards. 

TL;DR: You're not a viable market.  If you want proof, read others' posts here and then read your own.  Notice anything?

Getting a little off track, the lack of BC is the only thing that's truly stopped me from buying a PS3 to date. Well, that and the high price and limited number of exclusive titles that aren't available on 360, but if the BC was fixed, I'd suck it up on the price and lack of exclusives.

Not that I use the BC on the 360 much, but I was a diehard PS2 guy and have a lot more PS2 titles, and the upscaling is very prettyful, so the BC US 360 games still look bloody good on my new you-beaut TV, but the PS2 stuff looks like aliased arse.

The new UI is ok, it is really just the Windows Media UI (which is just the Sony Online UI I was using for FFXI beta 6 years ago) in 3D.  It still has the same big problem the old UI had, organizing hundreds of similar things - whether they are games or movies or music or etc...  It just really sucks at that and that's the ONE thing they needed to get right.

But uh, backwards compatibility?  Completely wrong thing for them to focus on.

But Netflix is kewl, I'll probably cancel my premium cable channel subscription(s) because of that so it will actually save me some money and, maybe, light a fire under Comcasts ass to try and please their customers.

I am sure the whole thing is just a test run of the new UI for their next system.

Xbox 720: The Full Retard Edition.

Weeeeeee.

"Open Tray" error.

Right when I buy GoW2 to coop w/ my bro who's in town this week.

Lovely.

Where were you when the 60GB and 20GB PS3 were on shelves?  Thanks to your did-not-buy-one, you are now stuck with shitty BC.  Of course you can still buy a shiny new PS2 for $130, so BC isn't really an issue.  Unless you like virtual memory cards and upscaling.

He's was probably right there with everyone else that didn't want to drop at least half a grand on a console that wouldn't have a decent library until almost two years after it's launch.

Then he might want to stop complaining.

 :roll:

Hi, blame-the-victim. 

I like shelf real-estate, and if a PS3 can't play both PS3 and PS2 games, I'll still be preferring my PS2 for a while (probably at least another year).  I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure that the fact that Sony couldn't cobble together good compatability and a large library of good games at the same time isn't Jain Zar's fault.

Don't forget about price.  They HAD to shove in a Blu Ray player as their Trojan Horse.  And that format hasn't exactly set the world on fire.
(What?  Your average schmoe doesn't want to pay 10 dollars more a title to watch a slightly prettier version of a movie?  WHO KNEW?)

So we now have an expensive system with maybe two exclusive games anyone gives a shit about (Little Big Planet and... uhh..  maybe MGS4 if you like watching your videogames and not playing them?) and an overpriced Blu Ray player that many people might injure themselves attempting to get at 6-9am Friday will own for a 100 dollars.

Having nice BC would have meant that outside of my Guncon 2 titles, I could have one machine running 2 system's worth of libraries with a nice big HD storage device instead of tiny memory cards.  (The 2 systems being PS1 and 2.)

I have about 60 PS2 games.  Unlike some people happily willing to drop 50-60 bucks every few weeks for the new hotness to sell back to Gamesuck in a month I like to play and enjoy my games for years to come and have a lady at a shoe sale mentality when it comes to the budget racks where I look for games I missed the first time around or nobody bothered to tell me about Game X since it didn't have fucking EA as a publisher or something.

Even though my sorry miserable ass lives alone in my own paid for house, I only have so much space, and having a half dozen systems hooked up is not only inconvenient, it makes my already so nerdy its a form of birth control home look even worse.

wat?

I think what Side means is in general the consumer rejected what Sony offered for whatever reasons.  (Price, features, list of software, desire to own a competing product)
So instead of Sony doing what the consumer wanted, it tried to quickly correct the problem as they saw best, which clearly went the wrong way for many people.

Should we the consumer be blamed for not wanting to pay through the nose for a game system that did not do what we wanted and being upset that their minor price solution was a poor choice?

Because I did not want to pay 500-600 bucks for a system that has about the same game suite as the cheaper 360 I should feel bad?

No.  Its Sony's fault, and removing PS2 BC just made things worse, making the machine LESS attractive to the point I will probably never own one until they are bargain basement machines.
(Or I somehow win the right to buy the Amazon 200 dollar deal this week which is highly dubious.    And if I do?  I sell the machine on ebay then try to get a BC capable machine so I can play LBP, which isn't exactly setting the world on fire, but its so darn cute I would love to play it.  And would then have cause to get Disgaea 3 and the WW2 Sega Braunstein RPG.)

It brings up a good point.  Corporations have gotten to the point of blaming the consumer for their own failures.  This is dumb.  The vast majority of people told Sony from the outset "DO NOT WANT" and they have paid for it by being in last place in the current console generation.  And they are getting beat by the Wii which has one of the WORST software lineups in the history of modern videogaming.  (Well, as long as you don't count Virtual Console anyhow...)  And the 360 which as I have mentioned is the Pinto of game consoles.  A modern day Atari 5200 if you will.  Sony could have lowered prices and taken the early hit.  They did not and they continue to be hesitant to drop the price even while the 360 and Wii blow past them.  When even JAPAN has weeks the 360 sells better you have fucked up royally.  We are talking SNES to N64 levels of fuckup.  Warner Brothers owned era of Atari levels of fuckup here.   Sega levels of fuckup.

Of course me being a Sega fan I sort of enjoy watching the company that finished off Sega leaving it to become a sad shadow of its former self (one that will not bring over the PS2 remakes of Phantasy Star 1 and 2, a tragedy amongst tragedies) taking it in a very painful place.

And its not the back of a Volkswagen Bug.

You know what I haven't had in a long time?

Big League Chew.

Haha!

Arguing about PS3 BC is silly when you can still buy a PS2.  No, I don't think Sony did the right thing by removing BC from the PS3 but I do understand why they did it.  It sucks.  If my PS3 dies then I'll have to get a PS2 which isn't going to be as nice.  Sony made several mistakes with the PS3 rollout which I'm sure have been rehashed enough.  However, if I had passed on the purchase of the release version of the PS3 and found myself looking at software emulation of PS2 games then I would be pretty sad and angry.  Then I'd go out and buy a new PS2 when my release version PS2 died.

ok

Can someone please explain to me how you see active download progress with the new UI?  I can't find it anywhere

Meh to your whole post.

Sony wants to keep BC out of their overpriced BRD-trojan-horse console, I don't buy their console or their software and instead I buy a 360 and MS gets the money from my many, many third party purchases.

I miss out on like 2 games and their sequels - Motorstorm, Uncharted and their sequels. Sony miss out on my money. QED.

Guide button to bring up the 'mini blades', then left 2x.

Anyone had voice chat/part connectivity issues? I only chat when I play NHL 09. The ingame chat channel used to work about 90% of the time. That is down to about 50%. If I try to use an XBL party or private chat to work around it, that only works 50% of the time. Had a session with Trotski a couple night ago where we both restarted our 360s and STILL couldn't get a fucking chat to work.

Nothing pisses me off more than shitty new features I don't need also break stuff I actually use.  :oh_i_see:

For me just change the games to Little Big Planet, and Sega's WW2 Braunstein RPG, and maybe Disgaea 3. 
And the latter 2 have no reason to be on the third place system exclusively anyhow.

Do you play anything other than NHL 09?  I always see you that.

I keep thinking about challenging Way to a game, but the amount of time he's put into it pretty much guarantees I get my ass kicked. I'll need a stacked team: WEST ALL-STARS VS. FLORIDA PANTHERS GO

I play BAP online almost exclusively (and I suck at that), so my expertise is pretty shallow. I also play FIFA 09 when NHL is threatening to give me an aneurysm, or when I watch a good soccer match and get all fired up  :why_so_serious:

This new UI/GUI/Dashboard is fucking awful.

Went to look at the new "premium" themes available for download. It just sits there and stares at me without loading anything...

The more I use NXE the more I hate it.  Visually it looks really nice, but I fail to see how this was an improvement over the old system.

Guess you grousers aren't the target market.

Xbox Live Arcade Sales Triple After New Xbox Experience (http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=21478)

The Microsoft press means just about Nothing. It's not in comparison to anything.

Not to mention that the sales themselves are not directly related to the NXE.  Unless it's clothes for your mii-too or whatever, it's just not even a usable statistic for anything.  The only real story there is that something new sold well on the arcade.  And lets not kid ourselves on the reality that these numbers were also pulled out during the first long weekend of a holiday season when a lot of people are sitting at home.  Math is hard.

edit:  slight correction, NXE launched middle of the week before thanksgiving, so it's possible that the numbers themselves weren't from the holiday week, but I seriously doubt it, since the term week can be made up to fit alot of scenarios, up to and including ignoring the 4 day non-week of the initial launch window.  The article doesn't actually clarify exactly which time period they're refering to.

They also like throwing around some of those statistics as "... in the last year", which really has nothing to do with the NXE either.

I think I'm just going to sit here and frown sternly.   :|

Not to mention a long awaited release just came out... you know.. Street Fighter 2: The quest for more money?

I will say that Burnout Revenge is much nicer off the Hard drive.  You still have to wait between retries but it's not nearly as bad as before.