Xbox Experience Beta Program

Burning Eclipse · 30-10-2008 9:50am

It was closed before I got a chance to register. Fairly gutted when I found out because I'd been all over majornelson.com... Enjoy it guys!!!

unklerosco · 30-10-2008 9:50am

Got in too... :-)

mayordenis · 30-10-2008 10:13am

I'll live, enjoy it anyway feckers

ROC1977 · 30-10-2008 11:48am

Just saw this post oh well. But still all you lab rats might end up with bricked 360's if it all goes wrong. lol Only joking.

Vegeta · 30-10-2008 12:10pm

I know it will be hard to pull yourselves (he he he he) away from it but will someone give us a decent review of it when you get it. Pretty please.

Mr E · 31-10-2008 1:50am

Just got an email.... Looks like we'll have it in the next 2 hours.

The Xbox 360 Fall Flash update will be available to you by 8pm PST on October 30th (11pm EST on October 30th, 3am GMT on October 31st).

While exploring the New Xbox Experience (NXE), you may come across bugs or have some suggestions. Please share those with us by going to Microsoft Connect and clicking on the Feedback link.

If you would like to post comments regarding your experiences with the New Xbox Experience, or interact with other preview participants please use the Newsgroups link on the connect site. Although we are monitoring the newsgroups, all bugs and suggestions should be filed using the Feedback link.

ShaneU · 31-10-2008 1:51am

Yep

If you got in on the NXE Preview program, you may want to sign in to LIVE in a few hours

about 1 hour ago from web (Major Nelson)

unklerosco · 31-10-2008 1:51am

Yep... I'll be having a tinker with it before I go to work in the morn. Altough, knowing my luck I'll still be awake at 3am ;-(

mailrewop · 31-10-2008 1:51am

Mr E wrote: »

Just got an email.... Looks like we'll have it in the next 2 hours.

u beat me to it, not long now:D

bucks73 · 31-10-2008 1:53am

Sweet. Was going on soon anyway.

mailrewop · 31-10-2008 3:41am

just after gettin the update

Antigone05 · 31-10-2008 3:48am

All NXE previewers. all that got in..sign in at 3am tonight

bucks73 · 31-10-2008 3:51am

Its downloading right now.

ShaneU · 31-10-2008 3:53am

Wha? I didn't get mine yet

Antigone05 · 31-10-2008 3:54am

me neither

bucks73 · 31-10-2008 3:59am

My console was off and when I saw someone post on Major Nelson I turned it on and updated straight away.

Antigone05 · 31-10-2008 4:04am

still nothing

ShaneU · 31-10-2008 4:06am

This blows

Antigone05 · 31-10-2008 4:19am

anything yet shane?

mailrewop · 31-10-2008 4:20am

just after installing fifa 09 onto my hdd, 6gb in 9 mins not bad

ShaneU · 31-10-2008 4:20am

nope

ShaneU · 31-10-2008 4:29am

I just got it there, it signs you out so you know when it's ready

Antigone05 · 31-10-2008 4:40am

as in your using your console and it signed you out?

Got the update. thanks for keeping me company Shane :P
i think i was the last in Ireland to get it

Mr E · 31-10-2008 8:28am

OK installed.... Review? Slick as hell, and blows the s**t out of the blades.

It does a 30 second download on the old interface, restarts and does a longer download which took about 7 minutes. A very nice intro video plays and it jumps straight into avatar creation. Avatars look better than Miis, but I'm not sure if the avatar creation process is more powerful than the Mii process - you have a whole bunch of pre-canned eyes, hairstyles, eyebrows etc. but you can't tweak them (you can't rotate things or make them bigger/smaller). Clothes selection is pretty weak too (a few pages of selections). This selection will increase exponentially over time, I'm sure.

I won't go through all the options in too much detail (just look at any of the preview videos that most game sites are running this week), but there are 7 screens that are the equivalent of the blades from the old interface, accessed by moving up and down, and several subscreens on each, accessed by moving left and right. After a couple of minutes looking around, you'll see where everything is.

One thing thats really slick is the game info screens. When you pick a game, you can quickly browse through everything to do with that game by moving left and right (achievements, downloads, info, leaderboards etc.)

I'll play about some more over the weekend.

Burning Eclipse · 31-10-2008 10:06am

Mr E wrote: »

OK installed.... Review? Slick as hell, and blows the s**t out of the blades.

It does a 30 second download on the old interface, restarts and does a longer download which took about 7 minutes. A very nice intro video plays and it jumps straight into avatar creation. Avatars look better than Miis, but I'm not sure if the avatar creation process is more powerful than the Mii process - you have a whole bunch of pre-canned eyes, hairstyles, eyebrows etc. but you can't tweak them (you can't rotate things or make them bigger/smaller). Clothes selection is pretty weak too (a few pages of selections). This selection will increase exponentially over time, I'm sure.

I won't go through all the options in too much detail (just look at any of the preview videos that most game sites are running this week), but there are 7 screens that are the equivalent of the blades from the old interface, accessed by moving up and down, and several subscreens on each, accessed by moving left and right. After a couple of minutes looking around, you'll see where everything is.

One thing thats really slick is the game info screens. When you pick a game, you can quickly browse through everything to do with that game by moving left and right (achievements, downloads, info, leaderboards etc.)

I'll play about some more over the weekend.

Look at you showing off with your gamerpic.... My god, I'm insanely jealous

unklerosco · 31-10-2008 10:23am

As Mr E says... Its pretty slick. My only grip is the new sounds. If you thought they pinched the Avatars from the Wii, they diffo pinched the sounds...

Will take a while to get used to where everything is but its very purdy. Video marketplace is slick, Games are slick.. Installed GOW to HD.. Much quiter while playing and load times are fractionally faster(2-3 secs)

Update took about 2-3 mins all in for me(20mb connection)... Video at the begining is a bit dodge. Avatars are pretty cool, mind you.. you should be able to slap them. Everytime I tried to change my eyes he kept looking away.. Hopefully they'll bring way more styles to it.. Gotta get me a little UnkleRosco COG!!

Vegeta · 31-10-2008 10:51am

unklerosco wrote: »

Installed GOW to HD.. Much quiter while playing and load times are fractionally faster(2-3 secs)

This is a bit worrying and disappointing for me.

Worrying because there is a trend towards stupid load times lately (Oblivion, Fable 2 are 2 just off the top of my head) and I fear developers will remain lazy and just start saying, install it and it'll be grand. I think Soul Reaver 2, a PS2 game had no loading, now given it was extremely linear in level design but how about they try and come to some compromise. I think the install is a bad thing when it comes to the technical quality of games. It has become common that a buggy game is released and patches are offered at a later date and now they can get away with more lazy practices by recommending installs. Don't think that's a good thing for game quality.

The last 2 games I have invested a bit of time into are Mass Effect and Fable 2, both of them are as buggy as an ant farm to begin with and then there's the frame rate drops, textures loading in while watching a character conversation, horrible loading times, for a universe where faster than light travel was possible you'd think they would have mastered elevators ffs.

I personally think the camera angle in GTA IV was purposefully **** and slow to follow the car around corners etc to hide the crap detail at the given draw distances. (that's me being very cynical though)

Where the fcuk has quality gone these days?

Its disappointing as it only marginally improved load times.

ShaneU · 31-10-2008 10:55am

Here's mine

unklerosco · 31-10-2008 10:58am

I don't think load times has much to do with the games quality... If its a crap game having faster load times just means you'll get pi$$ed off quicker ;-)

I suppose these games weren't designed to be played off a HD so maybe newer games will be optimized for it. I will say one thing, GOW had a habbit of when the level load the textures didn't load instantly. That DEFFO doesn't happen with the HD, I noticed that big time. It just jumps onto the screen...

I know what u mean about patching tho... I bought pure on release day n there was an update for it when I put the disc in first time, still has a few(very minor) bugs

Where'd u get that pic shane?? I was looking at xbox.com but can't see mine

Mr E · 31-10-2008 11:16am

unklerosco wrote: »

Where'd u get that pic shane?? I was looking at xbox.com but can't see mine

Just substitute your gamertag in the URL.

http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/heyheyaces/avatar-body.png

Xbox Experience Beta Program

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