Do You Like the Xbox 360 Dashboard Experience?

I love it. It’s like getting a brand new console and everyone I show it to (gamers and non-gamers alike) seem to get sucked into it. The old UI was great but very much aimed at a more hardcore audience. New one is snappy, fresh and fun to use. Even the avatars are pretty decent.

This dashboard may be unique but it has some key problems and here’s an interesting story of mine that was pretty annoying…
Where the hell do I enter codes?!
This one actually was stumbled when my friend bought 1600 MS points at Walmart and was going to enter the codes in for the Metallica Track Pack for GH3 in the GH3 menu. Now I didn’t know that when you enter the codes in the menu, it is for that specific game item and not for general code usage. Well he entered it and turned out the code wasn’t valid and took it back and after 45 minutes got a new one from Walmart. This code didn’t say it wasn’t valid this time but rather he was inputting it in the wrong place. Somehow my ingenious thinking said hit the Guide Button and look since it’s not in the Dashboard tab and loe and behold, there’s the Redeem Code that elused us all this time.

The moral behind the story is Microsoft failed to put in a new dashboard follow through. Instead we were to look through it ourselves via the dashboard itself or online. It’s an okay dashboard, takes some time getting used to though.

NXE is definitely a nice refresh to the XBOX 360’s interface, although I was quite satisfied with the old one. A big improvement IMHO is that the menu the guide button brings up is better than the old one.

I could do without the avatars, though. But MS probably want to appeal to the Wii crowd, too, so more power to them.

By the way, you have to give MS kudos for the rollout. Updating millions of machines all over the world is no easy task. In my case it was fast, seemless and without any problems whatsoever. Bravo.

Tom

I like it lots, like you say the experience is richer. I was seriously impressed with how they updated 14m Xboxes too.

not really man, I like it overrall but it has a lot of issues.

it might be a richer experience, but since the “upgrade”, we haven’t been able to join parties or private chats, and extensive phone time with xbox support hasn’t been able to resolve this. this makes it less than satisfactory.

I’d like to say the NXE is so awesome and you can customize the themes in the background :D

Great to see what you think Chris

i like this the new xbox theme becuz you can customize the themes

In my opinion, I don’t really like the new dashboard. It just mirrors the wii a bit too much. I’m not saying that it looks 100% like wii’s dashboard, however, but some its features look like some of the wii features. For example, the pages and text look like the wii’s(especially the avatar system). Now, I’m not saying that the new experience is bad, in fact I actually like the fact that Microsoft changed the look after 3 years and that the new look is MORE interactive, but it just looks too much like the wii. I’m also NOT saying that the wii’s own dashboard looks bad. I just think that microsoft should of made a difference look that is also cool, but doesn’t mimick other consoles. Like I said, i DON’T totally hate the new look, like I said I actually liked it in a way, it’s just that it really mirrors the wii too much.

I can’t stand NXE. It’s no better than channel surfing! Is that what I’m looking for?….nope…that?….nope…that?….maybe….nope….you get my point. “My XBox?” Is there a chance that I’m controlling someone else’s? “Parties?” I don’t want people yammering while I’m trying to watch a movie. All you gamer geeks need to go OUTSIDE!

Chris Pirillo Sears Cyber Monday Sale SuperAntiSpyware Deal for the Lockergnome Family What Can a Bowler do With a Webcam? How Long Have You Been Reading Comics or Graphic Novels?Do You Like the Xbox 360 Dashboard Experience?

I love the new experience, to me it is 10 times better than the old one. I like the fact that they incorporated a ITunes feel, well the side scrolling part anyway. The only problem I see is that they should have changed the start up screen to make it a 100% new experience.

Like highflyer34 said, I think that the new Xbox dashboard is too much like the wii dashboard.
I’m not saying that I hate the new dashboard, in fact, i like it. Microsoft is copying Nintendo in desperate wish to get more young and less hard core gamers.
It’s also not the first time that Microsoft is copying another company (think about Vista and Mac OS X (I don’t want to start a fight I’m just saying…)
Well that’s my opinion.

It’s sharp but resembles the wii way too much. I’m surprised I don’t read this in every single comment… it was the first thing I thought when diving into the new experience.