The New XBox Experience

So here it is: Microsoft’s complete redesign of the Xbox 360 user interface. So far, my reaction has mostly been one of indifference. I don’t need the Avatars, and the card system that is used to navigate between menus isn’t any better or worse than the old blade setup. Streaming Netflix over the net might be nice, but it isn’t something I’m likely to use anytime soon. My backlog of DVDs and Blu-ray discs is too big to worry about renting new stuff. So, it seems like NXE is nothing to write home about, right? Yes… except for one single feature, which single-handedly justifies the upgrade: hard drive installation for games! I’m absolutely loving it. Sure, ultimately Microsoft is just fixing a 3 year old problem: their console is so incredibly loud during use (especially on stream-heavy games like Fallout and GTA) that you can always hear it humming in the background. To the point where I haven’t been able to play 360 games in my office.

In our house, we have both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 hooked up to the big TV in the living room. But I have duplicate cables for the small TV in my office, as well. So if Victoria wants to watch something on the nice TV, I simply snatch the console and take it to my room. That always worked great with the PS3, which is very quiet. But the 360 was so loud that I could hardly hear the games’ music and dialog! Consider that I’m only sitting four feet away from the screen, as that smaller TV dictates. But now that I’ve installed Fallout 3 on the hard drive, the 360 is just as quiet as the PS3. And I can actually hear myself think!

So thank you for NXE, Microsoft. I’m just using one of your new features so far, but it’s heaven sent.