NXE: The New XBOX Experience

NXE, or the New Xbox Experience, is a firmware update to the xbox 360 that brings a lot of new features to the xbox along with making it more appealing to the casual crowd. After downloading and installing the new GUI(and watching a new intro video for the xbox 360), you'll find that gone are the blades you used to navigate your xbox, replaced with an almost iTunes-ish interface, divided into multiple categories (e.g. Friends, What's Hot, etc). The first thing you're prompted to do is create your Avatar, a cute-sy online representation of yourself. It's a lot like the Wii's Mii and there are a few games available on XBLA that you can play using your Avatar. I've gotta say, other than that, they're almost totally pointless, but a cute distraction from what you're really after: playing video games. And here we've come to the next new addition: Installing your video games to your HDD. Taking another cue from an already existing platform, you can now install your game and by doing so reduce that irritating dvd-drive noise constantly emanating from your xbox 360, reduce load times, and in some cases (Last Remnant, looking at you) actually improve framerate and pop-in. This is by far my most favorite new feature, having just recently picked up Lost Odyssey again and noticing how much faster the load times are. Not sure if you've tried it, but just zoning from one area to another took a long time to load. You'll still need the original disc to play the game though, this is only to verify that you own the game so no, you can't just rent games and pirate them. Another great feature is the partnership with Netflix to bring you streaming movies from their selection of Watch Instantly movies (about 10,000 or so already available, some of which are in HD). I love this one, too, because I have Netflix and although the selection isn't exactly the best, it's still a nice feature to have in those days you might not have a new movie on you and you wanna check something out in the meantime. With the NXE, you're also able to create parties with your friends and chat/share photos. This is a pretty good feature and it's fun to jump to different games with all your friends. Sometimes though, online matches can seem like a ghost town when you've got so many different people in their own chatrooms with friends. This isn't always a bad thing, though, if you're like me and get tired of hearing the arguing/crying on XBL. This is a huge update, unlike any other before it and totally free so I think everyone on XBL is gonna dig it. There's really something new for everyone to enjoy.