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[The Librarian]

I haven't been following the news leading up to this update. What are the list of improvements and differences, other than the aesthetic changes?

 

[Diablohead]

Friends list needs to show more people, the blade listing is a ton better then the lackluster dashboard one.

New store item layout seems good, will take time to adjust but it already feels a little better to navigate.

I would have preferred them to have improved response times on the in game blades, still feels boggy and shit.

 

[X26]

still don't have an option to disable your avatar from showing up on the dash :/

 

[ExtraKr1spy]

The way the good Lord intended is the option to choose at startup, a la the GameCube (and subsequent Nintendo systems).

go to the system menu and turn Auto-Play on?

I boot tot he dashboard cause I like to check if they added any content before I play.

 

[Stinkles]

The way the good Lord intended is the option to choose at startup, a la the GameCube (and subsequent Nintendo systems).

My xbox, settings, console settings, startup.

 

[Threi]

Any comparison pics of avatars new and old?

lol

still don't have an option to disable your avatar from showing up on the dash :/

why the hell would they do that?

 

[Sanic]

Content libraries still take over a minute to load. That really should have been fixed.

Where are Indie games on the marketplace? I couldn't seem to find them.

 

[op_ivy]

anyone else getting the "ESPN Downloaded" notification over and over and over again after downloading it? :lol

and new dash is better, faster, and avatars look loads better

 

[LiK]

Would be nice if you could display the old ver of your avatar if you want.

 

[X26]

why the hell would they do that?

to appease me obviously

 

[entremet]

huge improvement over the old one. how anyone could call this ugly, especially compared to that silly 3d view from before, is beyond me. very streamlined, clean and simplistic. good stuff.

Agreed.

 

[LiK]

Content libraries still take over a minute to load. That really should have been fixed.

Where are Indie games on the marketplace? I couldn't seem to find them.

Now known as Specialty shop...

 

[Mako_Drug]

I'm really liking how much more fluid and speedy using the menus feel.

Avatars look even worse now though.

 

[Genesis Knight]

Not a fan of this at all. I don't see how they thought it was an improvement to show less on screen. Of course, for MS it means more scrolling through channels like Spotlight and Marketplace than was necessary before (when you could see several things at once due to the cascade effect), and possibly more clickthroughs and purchases.

I don't think it's really less onscreen because before everything was in front of everything else because of the cheesy 3D tiering.

 

[TheSeks]

why the hell would they do that?

So some of us that don't give a shit about them and don't own avatar games don't have to see them? *shrug* Maybe?

Honestly, all I want is an option for the old Blades GUI back. Half the themes I own (for free) were designed for it in mind. It didn't require extra RAM on the hardware to run (thus, it was designed for the UI in mind) and didn't bombard us with ads with the exception of for in the seperate blades. :|

 

[Princess Skittles]

Content libraries still take over a minute to load. That really should have been fixed.

Agreed. :\

Where are Indie games on the marketplace? I couldn't seem to find them.

In "Specialty Shops" in the Game Marketplace section.

 

[Sanic]

Now known as Specialty shop...

Huh, I looked there, I must have missed them somehow. Thanks.

 

[Olivero]

Pretty sure the update just killed my Reach Slim.

 

[Skilotonn]

Whenever I leave the 360 for a while with friends in the party, I usually plug the headset out to hear the party talk through the speakers along with the game sound, I just did that and now I see that the game audio fades out as someone talks, then fades back in as they stop, DJ/radio-style - nice...

 

[Threi]

So some of us that don't give a shit about them and don't own avatar games don't have to see them? *shrug* Maybe?

If you didn't give a shit about them you would be completely indifferent to them showing up on the dashboard. To want to turn them off completely means you find them visually offensive, which is pretty funny :lol

I mean achievement points are a much worse problem than avatars, but people like em so whatever. I'm not gunna complain "why can't I turn my achievement points off?"

 

[SPEA]

I heard there are more resolutions support? Is that true? I'm at work and can't test it myself.

 

[see5harp]

The design is ugly but I like the improvements over the last Dashboard.

And am I the only one who thinks that the chat only sounds different instead of better?

I said earlier it was more "different." I do think it's easier to understand actual words though. When you put a mic up to a music source you really hear a lot more range, so that's cool if you're trying to grief, I suppose.

 

[U2NUMB]

Pretty sure the update just killed my Reach Slim.

What happened? I updated my Elite but have not turned on my Reach Slim... im worried about this

 

[Olivero]

Well, I finally got it to come on after being stuck on black screen for a long, long time. As soon as I sign in I get another update. :lol This is going to be one of those days, huh? :lol

 

[WickedCobra03]

With the new avatar updates, does that mean I can delete mine and keep it deleted like I did until yesterday afternoon before hitting A by accident when I was signing into my profile, and instead of pressing guide button, then Y to go to Dashboard and quit out of the creator, I hit A by accident, and I am still pissed about that. I am so against avatars, I have been avoiding them for like 2 years now until yesterday afternoon. I ain't buying your overpriced capitalist virtual clothes which might as well be me paying you to advertise for you. F' that noise.

 

[see5harp]

So some of us that don't give a shit about them and don't own avatar games don't have to see them? *shrug* Maybe?

Honestly, all I want is an option for the old Blades GUI back. Half the themes I own (for free) were designed for it in mind. It didn't require extra RAM on the hardware to run (thus, it was designed for the UI in mind) and didn't bombard us with ads with the exception of for in the seperate blades. :|

Pinball FX2 would lose so much life with the avatars gone. It really seems like every game now has some sort of avatar award so I think Avatars are here to stay and will be one of Rare's best contributions to 360 besides Viva Pinata and BK: Nuts and Bolts.

 

[cool_dude_2049]

I'm pretty sure that one of the reasons for the price increase has to deal with ESPN. It's bullshit that it doesn't work with TWC if you only subscribe to roadrunner. Why would it work on my computer but not on the xbox? I should get a refund.

 

[soldat7]

why the hell would they do that?

Because avatars should be optional. I should be able to hide it.

 

[Olivero]

What happened? I updated my Elite but have not turned on my Reach Slim... im worried about this

I downloaded my update, and went into black screen for about a 10 minute period during which I heard my disc drive whirring up in odd patterns. First time I've ever heard the drive. The console also got pretty hot. It eventually started up, but behaved very slowly with the new UI and after I got connected to xbox live I was instantly prompted for another update. So I downloaded it, installed, and started back up. Everything seems okay now aside from wireless connection issues.

 

[X26]

If you didn't give a shit about them you would be completely indifferent to them showing up on the dashboard. To want to turn them off completely means you find them visually offensive, which is pretty funny :lol

I mean achievement points are a much worse problem than avatars, but people like em so whatever. I'm not gunna complain "why can't I turn my achievement points off?"

Why do you even care so much that some of us don't like having to see them. Something tells me I look up your tag I'll see an avatar decked out in $20+ allards of avatar crap

 

[Dabanton]

With the new avatar updates, does that mean I can delete mine and keep it deleted like I did until yesterday afternoon before hitting A by accident when I was signing into my profile, and instead of pressing guide button, then Y to go to Dashboard and quit out of the creator, I hit A by accident, and I am still pissed about that. I am so against avatars, I have been avoiding them for like 2 years now until yesterday afternoon. I ain't buying your overpriced capitalist virtual clothes which might as well be me paying you to advertise for you. F' that noise.

You sound like a very weird guy... You don't have to buy anything for your avatar. :lol

Also do some people really prefer the old avatars? They look like little midget men with bug chests and shorts legs the new ones at least look 'normal'

 

[SuperÑ]

Someone fucked up the spanish translation at the Games Marketplace.

It should be "Imágenes", not "Imágener".

 

[Olivero]

And now I'm updating Netflix.

 

[Spinning Plates]

And am I the only one who thinks that the chat only sounds different instead of better?

No your not and I have to say I am pretty underwhelmed by it.

I've not had a chance to talk to my friends with it yet but listening to my own voice and im not hearing anywhere near the difference that most people were making it out to be.


old.....4/10
new....5/10
voip....9/10

-

 

[see5harp]

Why do you even care so much that some of us don't like having to see them. Something tells me I look up your tag I'll see an avatar decked out in $20+ allards of avatar crap

I haven't bought a single avatar item and still find avatars offer a good amount of visual feedback. It offers you the ability to customize your gamerpic and in most cases now, games unlike items. If you don't want to see other peoples' avatars just use the guide button.

 

[Haklong]

huge improvement over the old one. how anyone could call this ugly, especially compared to that silly 3d view from before, is beyond me. very streamlined, clean and simplistic. good stuff.

Agreed.

 

[hoos30]

I find the Zune Music, ESPN3 apps to be worth the price of the upgrade. Searching on Netflix is a plus too.

 

[AndyMoogle]

Content libraries still take over a minute to load. That really should have been fixed.

Where are Indie games on the marketplace? I couldn't seem to find them.

Over a minute? Do you have 500 games or something? Takes about 18 secs for my game library to load, and I've got 80 games.

 

[TheSeks]

New TOS, new UI, Kinnect tutorial that I don't give two shits about a $150 add-on about.

God, this update sucks already. :lol Watch them have returned on the "Welcome" channel I've had to turn off twice because they keep automatically turning that stupid shit on every dashboard update... :lol

Edit: AND THEY DID. (But at least it's easy to turn off now)

Spotlight being the update instead of "My X-box" on Live sign in = SMH still MS. I don't pay for ads to be shoved down my throat, thank you. :|

 

[AlphaTwo00]

This update has made some of the Premium themes look really wrong. For the Rock Band 2 one, the Friends list had the Wall of speakers aligned so that it's in a descending alignment. With the adjustment on the panels, it's now flushed together with no gaps in between, breaking the illusion of space between each panel.

oh well...

 

[AlphaTwo00]

Over a minute? Do you have 500 games or something? Takes about 18 secs for my game library to load, and I've got 80 games.

I'm at 300+ games (with a filled 120GB), it takes more than 1 minute for sure, on both the old system, and the new setup. I've also placed my profile on a MU, but I highly doubt that makes a difference.

IIRC, they've said that the time it takes to load highly depends on also the location you are relative to the server in terms of authenticating the user rights for the content.

 

[AndyMoogle]

There are two things I don't like about this update. First it's the friends list in the dash; it's terrible. It wasn't great before either, but now it's completely unusable when it only shows 2 friends at once.

The second thing is that they no longer have a "New Content" tab in the marketplace. You have to browse each category, which takes way longer than should.

 

[X26]

I haven't bought a single avatar item and still find avatars offer a good amount of visual feedback. It offers you the ability to customize your gamerpic and in most cases now, games unlike items. If you don't want to see other peoples' avatars just use the guide button.

You don't understand, the only thing I'm looking for is an option to turn off my own avatar showing up on "My Xbox", that's it

 

[Princess Skittles]

With the new avatar updates, does that mean I can delete mine and keep it deleted like I did until yesterday afternoon before hitting A by accident when I was signing into my profile, and instead of pressing guide button, then Y to go to Dashboard and quit out of the creator, I hit A by accident, and I am still pissed about that. I am so against avatars, I have been avoiding them for like 2 years now until yesterday afternoon. I ain't buying your overpriced capitalist virtual clothes which might as well be me paying you to advertise for you. F' that noise.

You're so hardcore!

 

[AcciDante]

As tall and skinny as possible. :lol

 

[thetrin]

I don't get this. People were all pissy about how bad the last one is. I think the newest version is a major improvement. More responsive, easier to navigate on the marketplace end, and it looks better.

You can't satisfy everyone I guess. But it looks like most here are happy. I'm very pleased with the new voice chat endcoding. No more sounding like I'm talking through a walkie-talkie.

After being in the beta, I have a very clear opinion of what is bad and good about it.

The new voice codec is definitely nice, and having all my purchasing details in My Xbox is very nice too. The new avatar dressing room is well done as well. But there are plenty of things wrong with the way it is now:

1) Old DLC for a relatively unpopular game is incredibly hard to find in the new marketplace. I often have to go to xbox.com and add it to my queue because there's no search function.
2) The lack of visual depth to the menus is crap. I can't see anything past the current two pictures on the menu now. How they thought this was a good idea is a mystery to me. They lose out on valuable ad space by doing it, too. The 4th, 5th, and 6th ad spots are suddenly less valuable because of a lack of visibility (I'm saying this as a marketing manager, not as an Xbox consumer)
3) Friends list is unusable now because of the lack of depth. On top of that, scrolling, even with the shoulder buttons, is INCREDIBLY SLOW. There's no reason why it shouldn't skip faster. Not only is the animation slower, but the bumpers no longer skip as many objects as it did before.

 

[see5harp]

You don't understand, the only thing I'm looking for is an option to turn off my own avatar showing up on "My Xbox", that's it

It wouldn't be that hard for them to add an option to opt out of achievements or avatars so I guess you have a point. I like them though.

 

[Threi]

Something tells me I look up your tag I'll see an avatar decked out in $20+ allards of avatar crap

Yeah you got me. Cept its way more than $20, the BBQ grill prop is 99999 MS points.

A hefty investment but definitely worth it IMO

 

[Psychotext]

1) Old DLC for a relatively unpopular game is incredibly hard to find in the new marketplace. I often have to go to xbox.com and add it to my queue because there's no search function.

I've never understood why they don't just have a "my game downloads" section which looks at your achievements and shows all the games which have addons available, with a date for each game that the last addon was released / "new" icon for things released in the last fortnight.

They must miss out on a ton of DLC sales simply because a lot of us have absolutely no idea that something new has been released for a game.

 

[Haunted]

It's simpler and cleaner, I'm not hating it.


Immediately noticed how the proportions of my avatar changed. :lol