Xbox 360 User Interface Revealed

Eric writes "BetaNews has some screenshots up of the new Xbox 360 user interface, which appears to be greatly refined over the original Xbox Dashboard. The new UI can be customized by the user and offers access to four main screens: System, Games, Media and Xbox Live. The big focus seems to be on tying Xbox Live into all aspects of the console, be it gaming or entertainment. Consequently, Xbox 360 will ship out of the box with a free Xbox Live Silver-level subscription."

Comments

Temporary UI

[Nytewynd]

I guess this is the UI we'll have to live with until modchips come out, and we get a dashboard that allows us to do what we want.

I hope that MS learned from the modchips of the past to find out that people want to fully harness the power of the machine, and not be limited to playing only XBox games on it. If they provided a dashboard that allowed for more customization, or the installation of emulators that would be great. I don't ever see that happening.

I'll probably wait to get the new xbox until Team Xecuter figures out the new platform.

Re:Temporary UI

[Blakey Rat]

I think Microsoft would prefer that people, you know, actually *pay* for the games they play... helps have good relations with developers and distributers.

Not only should Microsoft not stand in the way of your piracy, they should make piracy easier on the 360! Yes, that makes perfect sense...

Re:Oh GAWD.

[bigman2003]

Well, telling you that there is a new game available in Xbox Live Arcade...

Is that a banner ad, or is it an 'informative message.'

I would go with the 'informative message' myself.

When I am on a website that sells shoes, and they have a 'see our new stuff' button, I don't see it as advertising. I see it as a convenient way to find ou what new products they have at their store.

I'm already there, I've already expressed interest...I just want to find stuff.

I don't want to sort through a list of all of the Xbox Live Arcade games just to see if there is anything new- it is so much easier when they tell me about it...

On the other hand, here we are at Slashdot...right now I have a huge Vonage banner at the top of my screen. I am not interested in Vonage, nor does Vonage have anything to do with this section of Slashdot...but I keep coming back.

Someone scoring geekpoints...

[James_Duncan8181]

...a username of HiroProtagonist?

Either MS is wanting to suck up to the /. crowd, or they are anticipating really bad virus problems this time round.

Re:Someone scoring geekpoints...

[malakai]

That's J Allard's gamertag. Vice President of XBOX and Chief XNA Architect. And a lucky son of a bitch.

Who Spends Time in the Interface?

[GaryPatterson]

... when they could be playing the games?

It's a nice interface, clean lines and all that, but the thing I notice most about interfaces in video game consoles is that you want to spend as little time as possible in them.

You want to get to the game, after all.

Gag

[MeanderingMind]

Judging from all the new downloadable content, it seems likely that Microsoft may follow a Halo 2 model when it comes to the new features. Any game that has any popularity at all has the possibility of being plagued by charges each individual new map, weapon, or character.

I'm not opposed at all to being able to acquire and even pay for new content. I've played enough Blizzard games to be familiar with the concept of the expansion pack. It's more some lurking fear about how Microsoft will implement what would otherwise be a nifty feature that has me worried.

Re:Gag

[drewmca]

Then you should be familiar with all of the tweaks and balance changes and cheat fixes that Blizzard has been shipping for years, right? Any game with a huge online community will inevitably have exploits and cheats exposed by people. These are, as I said, inevitable. No amount of testing will expose every possibility for cheating. It's not skimping on QA, or cheapness that causes this, but the fact that these things will always occur in any system of moderate complexity.

If you take a look at the downloads Bungie has made available, they compare very closely to those that Blizzard has made available. They're fixes to expoits (sword flying, modem reset), balance tweaks (bumping up grenade damage), etc. Not bug fixes. The alternative is to let the game remain unplayable due to these problems. I think before jumping on the "xbox is a patchfest" bandwagon, you should take a hard look at what has actually happened and seriously consider the alternatives. People bitching about Halo 2's patchability are just having a knee jerk reaction.

Jeff Minter!

[Saige]

All I have to say when it comes to the new Xbox 360 visualizations is...

HELL YEAH!

Jeff Minter is doing the things, and with what he's done on the Jag and the Nuon platform with lightsynths and trippy effects, it's safe to say that the visualizations on the 360 will be nothing like the poor things on the Xbox. They're sure to be amazing displays, and I'm really looking forward to them!

I think I used my JagCD more for the visualizations than for gaming...