So today is the day, it's finally here, after way too much hype and a crap load of notifications the New Xbox Live Experience is available. As soon as you log on to live today you'll be prompted with a message saying you need to update. Not you can but you must. I'm probably starting this off on a bad note seeing as I love the new look.
The New Welcome Cinematic
(Epic music always gets me pumped)
I had mixed feeling at first given the drastic change it was to go through. After quickly setting up my avatar and seeing my Gears of War wallpaper carried over, I'm really enjoying it. The first thing you'll notice is the avatar, which is basically an updated version of the Mii on your Wii. If you don't have a Wii this will be totally new to you. The avatars themselves look nicer than the Wii characters and again with mixed feelings going in, I really like the idea. The reason I'm liking this idea is because you get to see how people picture themselves. All those "buddies" you have on your friends list suddenly have a face (an animated face but still). You can finally see what "Immagunnakillyou" looks like and realize he's 12 years old and you should probably delete him.
With this new avatar system comes chat rooms. You can start a group conversation with different friends directly on your dashboard. Though I've yet to try it, it seems like it should work well.
Besides the avatars and all those friends features, the interface is now both horizontal and vertical. By this I mean you have a main menu vertically at the top left hand corner, and the sliding dashboard like windows horizontal in the middle.
The whole thing has a more "User Friendly" look and feel to it. Though you may get a distinct sensation that you're using the Wii's older brother at times, it's a good thing.
Something else I talked about more in me previous article on this was the Game Show games. Xbox has created some unique ways to use your Avatar with game show like games. The New Xbox Live Experience
All in all I'm loving the new look and feel, let me know what you think.
