Treit and True:

Best Xbox 360 Features We Never Use

Published January 8, 2008

Xbox 360® is so chock full of features out of the box it's hard to keep track of them all. Add in the bi-annual system updates that add significantly to an already vast feature set, and chances are you're not taking full advantage of your console.

Are you getting the full benefit?

After several alarming conversations with even hardcore gamers this holiday season, I found both myself and others unaware of some pretty standard features. So it seemed a great time to highlight some of the handiest, most useful features we can take advantage of every day.

Check My Bio

From your chosen Gamer Zone to your motto and achievements, your Gamer Profile has always offered a window into your personality and gaming history. With the newly implemented Bio feature, you can now offer a much more comprehensive biography, including, well, whatever you want to say about yourself, provided it falls in line with Xbox LIVE® policy.

This tool is fantastic for identifying like-minded gamers to add to your Friends List, send a message, or invite into Private Chat. For example, let's say you take a look at the Players list after a spirited match of Halo® 3 and note that you and an opponent have a hobby or two in common. Now you've got the perfect icebreaker if you want to get in touch, or simply send them a Friend Invite.

You can update your Bio by selecting your Gamer Profile from the Guide menu, choosing Edit Profile and then Bio.

Inside Xbox

Keeping up to date on all things Xbox 360 can be a full time job, and while a daily visit to Xbox.com is always a wise move, the new Inside Xbox menu option on the Xbox LIVE Dashboard brings the highlights of the day and week right to your console. Check it every day for news items, community event reminders, new downloads, videos, and even a tip or two.

You can view the Friends List of
anyone on your own Friends List.

Friend's Friends

Perhaps the most widely used Fall 2007 Update feature is the ability to view your own friends' Friends Lists. Some casual fans may have missed out on this one, but it has proven very popular with the hardcore crowd.

In short, you can view the Friends List of anyone on your own Friends List, provided they haven't set their Privacy Settings to block their list from your view. Select someone from your Friends List and navigate (press the left thumb stick to the right) to Personal Profile, then choose View Friends.

DVD Startup

Your Xbox 360 knows precisely where you leave off when you power down a movie. You can hit stop, pop in a game, play for hours, and then slot your DVD back in and pick up right where you left off. No menu navigation, scene skipping or fast forwarding required. Your Xbox 360 will immediately start up from where you stopped the movie.

Download Considerations

Whether you're downloading movies, game content, television shows, or anything else that takes more than a minute or two, take advantage of all the console's download features.

• Simultaneous play: Downloads are (appropriately) background activities, so you can set up a download or two and immediately begin playing a single-player or offline multiplayer game. If you do join a multiplayer Xbox LIVE match, your download will suspend activity until you head back offline. Large file downloads take up a healthy handful of bandwidth, so suspending the file transfer when playing online is important for avoiding lag in your multiplayer matches.
• Queue it up: You can queue up multiple downloads and then prioritize them at your leisure by selecting the Active Downloads option on the Marketplace blade.
• Power down download: No one likes to leave their console on overnight, but at the same time, many of us want to download larger files when we're not actively playing games on Xbox LIVE. Now, you can download files even after you've powered your system off for the night. Head to the System blade on the Dashboard, select Console Settings, Shutdown, and set the Background Downloads option to Enabled.

Keep playing Campaign while you're downloading file after file.

Auto Power Off

Speaking of powering down, head to the same Shutdown, Console Settings menu to enable the Auto-Off feature. This shuts down your console if it has been inactive for six hours. If you're occasionally scatterbrained like I am, and forget to power down before drifting off to sleep, this feature should give you some peace of mind.

Quick Playback

Early adopters may remember that viewing movies and game trailers required the entire file to be downloaded. Thanks to the Spring 2007 Update, you can now select Play after only a fraction of your file has been downloaded. Naturally, the point at which you can press play depends on file size. If you're downloading a game trailer for example, it may take only a few seconds. With a high-definition feature film though, it could take several minutes.

Dashboard or Disc

Many gamers, myself included, prefer to head right to the Dashboard or even the Media Center on startup, instead of hopping directly into the game. You don't need to eject the game from your console if you want to hit the Dashboard. Instead, you can set your Xbox 360 to boot directly to the Dashboard, start up Media Center, or simply load the disc by heading to the System menu, selecting Console Settings, Startup and selecting your preferred option.

The preceding features barely touch the surface of what Xbox 360 offers, but hopefully they've brought to light a feature or two you may have missed. For a comprehensive list of the bi-annual system update improvements, check out the Spring 2006, Fall 2006, Spring 2007, and the Fall 2007 feature lists.

Article by Ryan Treit