This guest post brought to you by one of my co-workers who has be gaming quite a bit with the new Xbox Experience.

Nate Hoekstra’s One week with the New X-Box Experience:

Some say that change is not always for the better, but Microsoft’s “New X-Box Experience” is a step in the right direction from the old user interface.
As a long-time X-Box user, I was a bit wary of what Microsoft had up their sleeves when I first heard about the overhaul of the 360’s user interface, but after playing with the new system for a week or so, I’ve come to love the new functionality of the design.

For a point of reference, the old interface on the X-Box was functional, familiar, and relatively stable, but had points where it was clunky and not user-friendly. Sometimes graphic changes were clunky due to limits either with cacheing or processing times.

With the newest version of the interface that Microsoft launched on November 19, function, design, aesthetics, and versatility are all improved. The system is very smooth, and works well based upon the new organizational structure (detailed below).

The new system is less cumbersome, as it takes on a much more media-center-style interface that allows a quick peek at several options from the main Dashboard screen instead of having to pick an option to see choices like with the old interface.

The big improvement here seems to have been inspired by, ironically, the “Cover Flow” concept used in iTunes and on new-generation iPods from Apple.

It works on several levels, and based upon conversations with other Xbox users that I’m friends with, seems to be a big hit, especially in terms of encouraging downloads of new featured games, themes, movies, and pictures (all of which are purchased with points, which you buy directly from the unit itself or in major retail outlets, making Microsoft money).

A good example of this is the game I bought last week after my Xbox 360 Pro (60 gig version) auto-downloaded the demo — it’s called Castle Crashers, a simple 2D side-scroller with bathroom humor galore, a clown at the ending, and a cheesy Terminator reference to boot. The demo was fun, and so I sprung for another block of 1,000 points (about $12 or so) and downloaded the game. I never used to look at downloaded content unless I knew what I was looking for — the new interface prompted the look, and Microsoft ended up with a purchase because of it.

Other awesome functionality improvements abound in the media sense. The unit still serves as the docking station for my iPod, completely compatible with the USB front ports, but still doesn’t allow playing of my iTunes purchased songs — bummer. However, a simple transfer to Windows Media Player would solve most issues, as the Xbox still works as a network device for Windows Media PC compatible machines.

The best part about the new setup, however, is that now the units are completely compatible with “instantly available” titles from Netflix. Found easily in the new video tab, the Netflix interface prompts you to register the device on netflix.com with a code that identifies your unit. Then, any movies added to your existing Netflix account are available on your Xbox instead of watching them on a computer monitor.

The video quality is top notch, and while I’m still waiting for some more current releases to be made available online by Netflix, this is a big step forward. If you have a fast enough internet connection, titles can also be streamed in HD. You want to fast forward? Fear not. Using the FF brings up still images of scenes you can select, and re-buffer and stream from there. It’s all quite quick, about 15 seconds of streaming on my relatively quick Comcast internet at home.

Another update is the ability to rip entire game titles to the hard drive, limiting the use and wear that comes with loading off the disk all the time. However, some games, like the first time I loaded up my perennial favorite Halo 3, it let me know in no uncertain terms, that Halo 3 was optimized to run off the disk, and not to run it off the hard drive.

Microsoft also took some cues from the development team at Nintendo, adding in heavily customizable avatars that can be used in a few games at this point, including the download of “UNO!” and some other games. The only experience I have playing with my own avatar is on the newest version of “Scene It!” in which your avatar occupies a place on the hopping magical cough that takes you from minigame to minigame.

The avatars don’t really do much but loaf around right now, but I’d imagine that the Microsoft developers are planning to make changes that will allow for the avatars to be used in many more games in the future. (What would be better than playing Halo Wars when it comes out as a cartoon rendition of yourself!)

Anyhow, the GUI is broken up into several categories:

Spotlight: My least favorite of the categories. It mixes up everything from video to arcade games, ads to themes. There’s an option to hide the “Welcome screen” once you use it the first time. I wish there was one to hide Spotlight, however, occasionally it does point you in the direction of something cool.

Events: Self-explanatory. This section lists the Live events going on in the near future. Say there’s a developer play night with the folks from Bungie, or a Halo 3 Double Experience Weekend, you’ll find them here.

Inside Xbox: Microsoft puts their featured content here. Kind of like Spotlight, but with better content. I actually use this portion a lot.

My Xbox: The place you’ll use the most. This is where you find your games, demos, media library, profiles, and settings.

Friends: Also pretty basic. This is where your friends are, and where you can add new friends.

Game Marketplace: Find downloadable content, demos, etc. here.

Video Marketplace: Just like game marketplace, but for videos. Pretty simple. I recommend the featured Comedy Central stand-up that was on there last night. Oh, and you can easily search — a plus.

One other portion that’s nice about the Dashboard and the NXE overall is that the page-flip design (called blades by some) of the old UI is maintained, albeit in smaller form, from the Xbox button on your controller. There are hardly any graphics, it’s efficient, and doesn’t dominate like the button-based quick launch of the old system used to.

Another new feature is multi-player matching that lets you and your gaming crew to transition from game to game pretty easily. I haven’t had a lot of experience with this, but based upon the interface, it seems pretty easy. Again, not a lot of game time on this, but it seems quite intuitive and easier to use than the old system.

Overall, the new update is fast, fun, and easy to use. And even if it wasn’t, you’d be stuck with it, because you need to update to get on Live. It’s a good update, and helps the platform a lot while adding a bunch of new uber-helpful features. The updates to the system as a whole are fast, games faster, and using the new features is user-friendly and easy to do.

So kudos, Microsoft, on an update well done.

-Nate

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You can contact Nate at nate(dot)hoekstra(at)woodtv(dot)com

I’ve gathered a list of what some other people have thought of NXE, check out the links.

The Avatars have landed: exploring the New Xbox Experience

New Xbox Experience (NXE) Review: It’s Pure Improvement

New Xbox 360 Experience hands-on and impressions

The NXE hard drive install only marginally improves game loading time