This Week in Xbox: Nov. 19-Dec. 3, 2008
At A Glance
- Denny Atkin takes a look at this week in Xbox news.
This week we break from the traditional overview of what's new on shelves to take a look at the New Xbox Experience. Chances are, if you've signed on to Xbox LIVE®, your Xbox 360® is looking a lot different all of a sudden, with a new user interface, and a bunch of new onscreen toys.
Since I've been using NXE for a couple of months now, I thought I'd share some tips, cool new features, and FAQs I've run across.
Install to Hard Drive
One of my favorite new features of NXE is the ability to install games to your hard drive. (And my 120GB drive is now finally approaching fullness.) This gives a slight (Grand Theft Auto IV™) to significant (LEGO® Batman™: The Videogame) increase in loading speed to most games. But even better, the drive only spins briefly when the console checks to see if the disc is in the drive, and after that it stops, making your console whisper-quiet during gameplay.
To install a game on your hard drive, scroll to the My Xbox channel with the disc inserted. You should see the current game in the entry on the channel. Press Y to bring up the Game Details screen. Now select Install to Hard Drive. After the copy completes, you'll still need to put the disc in your Xbox 360 to play, but the game will automatically load from the hard drive instead of the DVD.
Quiet down that DVD drive by installing your favorite games to your hard drive.
Chances are, when you put the disc in the drive, it automatically started, and you had to manually return to the Dashboard to initiate the copy. If you foresee copying discs to the hard drive more often than not, you might want to disable automatic launching. Go to the My Xbox channel, scroll to System Settings and press A, select Console Settings, and scroll down to select Auto Start. Change the setting to Disable and discs will no longer auto start when you put them in your console.
Finding a Theme
You might have discovered that you can hit the Guide button (the big silver button that lights up) to quickly access most of your settings, the Marketplace, and a bunch of other functions. But one of the few things you won't find on the guide is the ability to change your Dashboard theme. That's done from the Dashboard itself, since Themes only affect the dash.
To change your theme, head to the My Xbox channel, and press A to view your full Gamer Profile. (There's some other cool stuff here too, such as achievement cards.) Then scroll down to Themes and press A.
Change your Dashboard theme from your Gamer Profile on the My Xbox channel.
Note that while the older themes still work under NXE (and legacy themes are still available, now at 50 points), the new themes you find on Marketplace are the ones specifically enhanced to take advantage of the new design. New themes fall into two categories. Basic Themes cost 150 MS Points. These contain four background images, and are optimized for the NXE design. Premium Themes cost 250 points, but are super-enhanced for NXE. For example, the 3-D backgrounds behind your friends on the Friends Channel are replaced with new objects that fit the theme.
Premium themes include new scenes behind your Friends list avatars.
That Big Silver Button
Pining for the comfort of that old "swooshing" sound as you navigated through the old blades? Just press the Guide button and you'll be presented with the new Guide, which works (and sounds) like the old blade interface. You can quickly navigate to the Marketplace, Games Library, Friends and Party lists, Media library, and settings pages, from the Dashboard or even from inside a game.
Speaking of Parties, they might very well be the coolest addition to NXE when it comes to Xbox LIVE. Hit the Guide button, select Party, choose Start a Party, and then choose Invite Players to Party. Invite up to seven friends to join you. (Your friends can invite people to join as well, but as the party host, you can kick out the unwelcome.) As gamers enter the party, you'll be able to chat with them. Then, launch your favorite multiplayer game, enter the multiplayer mode, and go back to the Party screen, and select Invite Party to Game. Assuming your friends all have the game available, they'll be brought into your multiplayer session. And friends in the party who don't opt to join in the game can still hang around and chat.
Getting your friends into a game together is much easier with NXE's new Party system.
As I mentioned, you can find most functions on both the Dashboard and in the Guide, but just as Themes live only on the dashboard, there are a couple of functions you'll only find in the Guide: Active Downloads and Redeem Code. Both of these can be found on the Marketplace blade in the Guide.
Game Stuff
Want to quickly find that demo or Xbox LIVE Arcade game you've been playing a lot lately? Go to the My Xbox channel and choose Game Library. Your 10 most-recently played games will be on the first card on the screen.
Are you one of those gamers really bugged by having zero-point entries on your Gamerscore for games you tried briefly but never got around to scoring your usual 1,000 points of achievements? Just hit the Guide button, scroll left to the Games blade, and select Achievements. Now scroll to a game for which your Gamerscore is 0 and press the X button to delete the game from your Game History. Note that the Delete Game History option only appears on games for which you have 0 Gamerscore. Those 1,000 points you got playing Avatar: The Last Airbender are permanently on your card, pal.
Miscellaneous Cool Stuff
Well, I'm biased here, but my personal favorite feature: Insider Moves and the rest of the Inside Xbox shows are now viewable straight from the Dashboard, instead of being hidden behind a block of text. Drop by the Insider Moves topic and let us know what you'd like to see in future episodes, and you might just see your favorite game featured right on the dashboard.
All the great Inside Xbox shows are viewable from the Dashboard, and there's an archive for each show as well.
Proud of your cool new avatar and want to put it on your Web page, or add it to your e-mail signature? Just plug in your own Gamertag in place of "[tag]" in the URLs below and you can bring your avatar up in your Web browser, and then right-click it and save it to disk:
Small Image: http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/[tag]/avatarpic-s.png
Large Image: http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/[tag]/avatarpic-l.png
Full body: http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/[tag]/avatar-body.png
Now my "Editer" avatar can follow me everywhere … e-mails, websites, legal documents …
Finally, ever hear about a cool new demo, or a Rock Band 2 or Guitar Hero® World Tour song while you're at work or in school, and then completely forget to download it by the time you got home that night? That's no longer a danger, now that Xbox LIVE Marketplace is live right here on Xbox.com. Head over to the Xbox LIVE Marketplace page and you can browse all the new and existing downloads, get information on them, and even purchase them right on the Web. Then, next time you power up your Xbox 360 and connect to Xbox LIVE, your Marketplace purchases (and freebies) will be downloaded automatically. Speaking of downloads, the Active Downloads queue has been expanded from six entries to a whopping 40, making it much easier to fill your hard drive with lots of great stuff.
There's lots of other cool new stuff in NXE; this just scrapes the surface. Drop by the This Week in Xbox Feedback topic and let us know your favorite features and improvements.
Now, back to Left 4 Dead™!
Article by Denny Atkin
