NXE Review By Rahul

[Rahul]

Alright guys , i got the NXE [ Next Xbox Experience ] Preview installed on my Xbox 360 & its working fine.

I must tell you that im not a great writer so this is not gonna be one of those in depth reviews that you are gonna see. i will just cover some of the basic parts which will answer the questions pertaining to installation & some minor features of the console.

1. The update works on any console from any region , for i have got an American Xbox Live account , Im located in India & my console holds a NTSC/J region code.

2. No it does not BRICK your console. the console downloads a single update the moment you sign into XBL & then restarts after which it downloads an installs another bigger update.

3. HD installs = Faster loading times = TRUE , I installed Saints Row 2 on the Har Drive & the initial screen loading time is much less than halved , more like the initial loading time has gone down by 70% . I hope it will increase the life of my DVD drive.

BTW installing to the hard disk was much faster than i imagined. It installed entire Saints Row 2 to my HD in 3 minutes flat. The installation took 6.2 GB which leaves me with enough room for another game or so.

<snipped>

7. You gotta reinstall the DIVX update after installing the NXE. Maybe they changes some other file support or something.

8. The kiddy music & background sounds certainly doesn't go well with my Porn Star image. BTW you CANT change any of these kiddy sounds.

9. All your previous themes are pretty much useless as they are now stretched & for me stretched background images just dont cut it . Though you can still use your old themes and background images if you want to.

10. Creating Avatars takes time as well as effort & where is that Pornstar Avatar they promised me !!!!

11. Some of your gamer data such as the info on games played & the details of achievements earned may be lost after the update. But don't fret cuz a) your Gamerscore is not effected & b) it can be rectified by simply booting up games with missing data :) or if you are lucky by just restarting the console

12. Many of you will remember that if any video that is too big or too small ( in screen size ) it didnt get stretched well with the previous Xbox 360 for viewing as some parts of the video were left out or we had to make do with an ugly black border.......well folks its time to rejoice for the media center junkies as videos get Pan Scanned very well and should you wish, no black borders are to be seen & no or very little parts of video are left out of the viewable area just like good ol XBMC . Now i can watch 16:9 videos full screen on my 4:3 Television with little or no part of the screen image cut from sides or any black borders on top to deal with :) [ This may also have something to do with my PAL television working with the NTSC/J console ]

13. The Video render quality also seems to have been improved greatly. Now not only HD videos but even SD videos seem to look good on the television. Many have said that netflix streaming of SD content has never looked better before. Maybe this has something to do with the media update that i talked about earlier.

14. For someone looking to revert back to the old blade system , there seems to be no way back. Once you are in , you are in !!!

15. Also, once the update is out you will have to install it whether you like it or not , as it wont let you sign into live if you decide not install the update for any personal reasons of your own.

16. Its true, Its true ..... the Xbox community games are selling for as less as 50 Gamer Points. in fact there are three of them & all are for 50 points each. Hmmmm should i buy ........ meh ill contend myself with ' Goodwill humping ' & ' shaving private Ryan ' instead.

17. Errrrrrrrm this is what my Gamer Picture looks like right now .Thats right, its blank as Microsoft are yet to upload the gamer picture to their website. As for those wondering how will we get a gamer pic in front of our profile now that we have avatars. The answer is that you dashboard allows you to click a picture or a steady frame of your avatar in any pose & combination of clothes from any angle & level of zoom to be used as your Gamer Picture. You may also pick the background of your choice.

18. When you install the update This is the video that you are upfront presented with, Pretty slick if i may say so. After this video you are immediately taked to the Avatar creation screen

19. The way things are arranged i.e. the categories cant be changed to your liking , and unfortunately, you can't tweak folder contents in any way. So say you want to stick Netflix into My Xbox since you have a subscription?too bad. It can't be done.

20. you could operate the entire device by hitting the Xbox button and pulling up the Quick Launch Bar.

The QLB is gray and blue, and it brings back the blade interface of yore. Not only can you pull up the QLB from the main menu, but you can pull it up from anywhere at any time, even in games.

Why is that access so convenient? Well, say you are playing Fable II. You can pull up your QLB and find a list of your most recently played games. Select one and you'll hop from one title to another without tediously returning to the main menu. The same rubric applies to music, downloads and pretty much everything else you want to do on the 360. Oh, and it's the best way to circumvent Microsoft ads and promotions because it has none.

21. Once a game has been installed to the Hard Drive, it will play of the HD only. There is no way to make it play of the Disk until you delete the game from the Hard Drive.

22. Removing the game from the tray while playing a Hard Drive installed game will return you to the dashboard as the Dashboard is Reset.

If there are any other things that i have not covered you may check em out at

Engadget

Team Xbox

Gizmodo

Should you Need any help or other favors feel free to ask me , I shall be glad to help

Sayonara from Sensei Rahul:ninja:a:

__________

I didnt know that it was possible , but i got Banned from Neowin for 10 days for Writing a review ......... that's seriously weak dudes !!!

Edited November 13, 2008 by Rahul

[funkymunky]

Nice one mate :)

How do we get the preview version? Or is it obvious?

[PaulCabby]

i think you had to sign up for it but it filled out pretty quickly

[Si_]

Great stuff, thanks Rahul. Can't wait to try this, got the email this morning saying it's available so should get it when I get home and turn the xbox on.

[-KJ]

I'm really looking forward to the HDD install option. Fable II will be even more fun to play. I think I've read all the loading text 10+ times now :p

[t0mbi]

good job Rahul, you have answered questions for me, especially the text in the spoiler part :D lol

[kazuyette]

lool @ number 8 Rahul :D

Nice bits of infos you gave us mate.

[.KICK]

lol @ 8

Nice job (Y)

[Brad.]

Thanks Rahul, everything you mentioned is relevant to my interests.

>.<

Tried watching a .mkv file? Just in case they added the ability to watch Hi-Def movies :D

[.KICK]

Thanks Rahul, everything you mentioned is relevant to my interests.

>.<

Tried watching a .mkv file? Just in case they added the ability to watch Hi-Def movies :D

.mkv is not supported in the update as far as I know!

[Brad.]

.mkv is not supported in the update as far as I know!

Damn :(

Oh well :p

[Smashing Pumpkin]

One question. Is it nice and slick, or does it hang liek the blade did. The blade is always hanging and slowing down for me.

[Rahul]

One question. Is it nice and slick, or does it hang liek the blade did. The blade is always hanging and slowing down for me.

Its nice and slick mate, you dont feel any kind of caching going on like you felt with the Blades. Infact you will really like the quick response of the new update

[Smashing Pumpkin]

Nice, thanks for the quick reply.

[mail]

16:10 resolutions?

[digitalsoft]

Looking great! Can't wait for this now! :D

[Coffeee]

16:10 resolutions?

+1

would also like to hear about this if you can comment :)

[HawkMan]

They are there's but the usenet for nxe a few users are complainging abotu a bug with the 1680x1050 res at least. basically they get the res, but it still gives the black bars, but it squashes the image.

hopefully they'll fix that for those who use it,since the resolution apparently works, it just think it should be 16x9 and squashes the image.

[Rahul]

16:10 resolutions?

Sorry mate , i have a 4:3 TV, so i cant help you out on that one

[seethru]

Does it ask for the disc when you play an installed game?

[Eat68]

omg!

looks like I'll be needing one of them 120 gigs

[Rahul]

Does it ask for the disc when you play an installed game?

Yeah mate, It asks for a disk when you start a game but only to start the game. After that the dvd spinning slows down & you can feel that the game is playing of the Hard Drive. Though you cant eject the disk out of the console, should you do that the game returns to the dashboard.

[seethru]

Yeah mate, It asks for a disk when you start a game but only to start the game. After that the dvd spinning slows down & you can feel that the game is playing of the Hard Drive. Though you cant eject the disk out of the console, should you do that the game returns to the dashboard.

Good to know :)

[Sikh]

The only reason it asks for disk seethru is to make sure you own the game and you have the CD.

If it ws just install and go off the hard drive game makers would start loosing money as you can go to a friend, or a rent place and get a game install and give it back and play it all you want.

Its a good and bad. I just ont want the CD in there becuase as lnog as its in there, rather its spinning or not it can get scratched. You know microsoft they say it wont spin during hard drive play but just watch someone report there xbox scratching the dvd even when playing off hd.

Cheers

[Unto Darkness]

Everything looks so polished! Microsoft have done an amazing job! Lets hope it lives up to all the hype.