Xbox 360 Dashboard Re-launch this Fall
Monday, July 14th, 2008Microsoft announced today at their E3 conference that they will be COMPLETELY re-launching the Xbox 360 dashboard this fall. The dashboard appears to be the love child between the three current generation dashboards. Going for a more simplistic style akin to the PS3 XMB setup, mixing in an Avatar system similar to Nintendo’s Miis, and adding the typical Microsoft flare to everything. DLC clothes, a Party system that allows players to share pictures, movies, and join into games together. I’m still not sold on the new look, but this announcement has extreme beef to it. Stay tuned for some images.
*EDIT* Keep Reading for new images!
Mock-ups from the design team in response to questions about themes and stuff:
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So, I’m not sold on the Avatars and the new look dashboard. But what I am sold on is the part system. That looks like it will make things a lot easier to get together with friends. Combine this with the Netflix announcement? Huge news.
Stuff I missed in the original announcement:
8 person chat.
Install Games to your hard drive.
I like the new look of the dashboard.. reminds me a lot of the itunes/iphone interface.. I can’t wait till I have the $ saved up to actually pick up my 360…
I hear ya thegr8tmerlyn- I have to wait ’till I get a better job first before I buy the luxury that is the 360. Right now I’ve been playing it at my friend’s places and I am simply in love with it. I’m very picky about what games I play and the 360 has a great selection. The only game that I want to play that isn’t available for it is Zelda, but I just can’t justify buying a Wii just for that.
Hmmm…the new interface looks fine, but I’m not sure how much better it will actually be.
Buy the GC version of Zelda… using the Wii mote is too much of a chore for that game… I think I have “sword” elbow and wrist from that freakin game.. I enjoy my Wii only for the party games.
@thegr8merlyn: Couldn’t have put it better myself. It got old, really fast. I like pushing buttons for mundane tasks. Motion control is best when it reacts in real time (1:1) in games.
@Polygon: Ultimately they haven’t really showed much on the interface that needed changes. That being things like the store. Especially the store, where you had to try and navigate through a mess, and read descriptions through a slow scrolling screen.
About the Wii Zelda……I have no idea where everyone else is having problems with it. I was able to play the game with minimal waggle, nowhere near enough to give me “sword” elbow. Plus, being able to aim your weapons with the pointer is just awesome (especially dual hookshots). That said, the GC version of the game is still very good. The only thing I didn’t like about Twilight Princess overall is the “I want to be Ocarina of Time” envy that it has. The game is very good, but it’s almost like a super-tweaked version of Ocarina.
I hope the next Zelda has a lot more new stuff than Twilight Princess does. For instance, now that the Wii MotionPlus thing has been revealed, I would love to see 1st person sword dueling in the next Zelda. That could be really cool for boss fights or something.
@Polygon: Minimal waggle is still waggle. Pushing a button is much simpler. The gameplay does not improve by flicking your wrist in order to swing a sword. If it doesn’t improve, that means it is worthless. I assume Nintendo is learning that, as you weren’t forced into flicking your controller around to play Smash Brothers.
It just really got tedious after a while. As I’ve said before, I do not like being forced to maintain a consistent position when playing games. I like to sit here, sit here, lie down, etc. The game made it difficult to lay down at all and still play. Plus every time you shifted positions, there went your sword. But still, it looked like a pretty fun game, so I’m glad you enjoyed it. I would love to play through it some day. But I won’t be buying the game again just to play the Gamecube version.
Posted some new images to this post. Shows the new guide button menu, as well as some more detailed pictures from the dashboard itself.
Yeah, I don’t think the waggle makes it better, just different. I do like being able to aim weapons like the bow with the pointer, but it’s not really a monumental difference. I just liked the feel of it.
Maybe you should trade in the Wii version of Twilight Princess at GameStop (or another game store) and get the GC version of it.
Man, Smash Bros. would have really sucked if you were forced to use waggle for all your attacks.
Back to the Xbox now (see, I can be on-topic too!), I just watched a “walkthrough” video of the new dashboard on Gametrailers that makes me think it will be a lot easier to navigate things. So after learning a bit more about it, I think the new dashboard is a definite improvement.
If you’re interested, the video I watched is here: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/36412.html