New Xbox Experience review
Radical redesign or polished poo?
Unless you've just come staggering out into the daylight from a nuclear bunker, chances are you'll have heard of Microsoft's latest Xbox 360 update, the New Xbox Experience. Unlike Sony, Microsoft doesn't like chucking out updates willy-nilly. Instead it savours them, storing up new software goodies and unleashing them in one giant surge.
This one, however, has blown all previous updates out of the water. It's far bigger and more ambitious than ever. Turn on your Xbox now and you actually won't recognise it. For at least a minute, you've going to think some crafty thief has nicked your Xbox 360's innards and replaced them with a Wii.
Your first task on completing the update process (which was fast and painless for us; surprising given the volume of traffic now on the Xbox LIVE network) will be to create your new Avatar. Yes, Microsoft has gone all casual on us and introduced customisable family-friendly characters.
Imagine the fun you can have playing dress up with your own ker-azy little person. Yeah, that much.
The cutesy creations are about as appealing to the core gamer demographic as a dessert made of rabbit semen. If the background music shrieked 'Wii-knockoff' any louder, our ears would bleed. The only good thing about the whole experience is that you can flick the thumbstick back and forward to batter your avatar's pointless head against the screen. Despite a good ten minutes of trying this, however, we didn't seem to have achieved any permanent mental impairment.
The meat of the NXE is the radically altered layout of, well, everything. The blades are gone, utterly. Instead, pretty much every essential task can now be found using the Guide button. This bit actually resembles the old blade system the most, but it's a lot easier to find your way around.
Meanwhile, the main menu, if you can really call it that any more, is much more geared towards Xbox LIVE content. Microsoft has been struggling with the fact its original menu layout wasn't really designed to cope with the huge amount of content now available.
The result is that loading up the dashboard now takes a little bit longer than it used to, presumably because the system is now pulling info from the network before booting. It's also going to be exacerbated by the sheer volume of traffic on Xbox LIVE now trying out the download.
More pleasingly, the general operation of standard menu functions feels a good deal quicker than it was before. The new option to install games to hard disc also speeds up game start times, however, when we tried it with Guitar Hero: World Tour and Gears of War 2, we didn't notice any significant reduction in normal in-game load times. It's a slight disappointment, but the blissful silence from the disc tray makes up for it a bit.
There's been one casualty in the update: themes. Yeah, you can still use them. Sort of. Hey, you can see nearly half of them being drowned out in the background there! People who paid for themes are going to be miffed, but then they did pay money for a small set of graphics, so arguably they had it coming.
Link: New Xbox Experience
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People who paid for themes are going to be miffed, but then they did pay money for a small set of graphics, so arguably they had it coming
| Our Rating |  |
|---|---|
| Price | £49.99 |
WE LOVE
Installing gamesEnhanced guide button
More LIVE features
WE HATE
AvatarsAvatars
Avatars
Broken Themes
WE SAY
NXE is not a sole reason to invest in an Xbox 360, but it's breath of fresh air for existing ownersEssential Mobile Apps
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By freeiphones4u
24|08|2009 11:08
The Free iPhone Guide
To get yourself a free iPhone, iPod Touch, or the latest Macbook Air all you have to do is follow the 3 easy steps:
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Sign up at the link below to get your free gift. We recommend this free gift site because it's been TRIED and TESTED to work.
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You can choose other prizes like free iMacs from this site too! Make sure you use a real email address. Use your real details when you sign up so that the company knows where to send your gift! Remember that they have been proven legitimate, so will send you your free gift if you do everything legitimately!
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Basically all you need to do in this step is complete one of the offers, this is where the freebie site make their money, if you complete an offer then the freebie site will recieve commission for it. So if you complete Coral which will only cost you £5 to complete, the freebie site gets £25 from Coral. The two best offers are Lovefilm Free DVD rental trial (where you rent any two DVD's for free!) and Coral (bet £5 on a sport). I would reccommend you do Coral as it credits in an hour and is really simple to do, Lovefilm however can become complicated and takes up to 4 weeks to credit! You can also try one of the other offers, most are gambling offers. Don't skip this step! You must complete this step to get your free gift!
Step 3 : Refer some friends
This part is a lot easier than it seems, especially now with free gift sites getting so popular. There's lots of people online who want a free iPhone, Touch or macbook too, so start referring them! You only need to get a few signups before you'll be finished. You can ask your friends or your online buddies. I already got a free iPhone without even having to ask my friends for help - there's lots of people online who want a free iPhone like you! One of the easiest ways to get a referral is to do a favour for a friend and ask them to sign up in return. That way, you both can get a free gift!
Basic rules
Don't break these rules! This is the only reason that you won't get your free gift, so make sure you follow these rules!
- One account per household - don't use a public computer to sign up!
- Use real information - this is a proven legitimate site and they will not give out your information.
- Only complete each offer once! You cannot complete the same offer again, even for different freebies.
- Don't try to cheat the system. This site has been proven legitimate, and they will catch you if you try to cheat. If you do everything legitimately, by following this guide, you will get a free gift!
Thats all, just follow my guide and you will have your free gift in no time.
By FreeItems4You
21|08|2009 13:53
www.gifts.freebiejeebies.co.uk/86180
To get yourself a free Xbox 360, Playstation 3, or the latest PS3 Slim all you have to do is follow the 3 easy steps:
Step 1 : Sign up for a free Gift
Sign up at the link below to get your free gift. We recommend this free gift site because it's been TRIED and TESTED to work.
www.gifts.freebiejeebies.co.uk/86180
You can choose other prizes like free iMacs from this site too! Make sure you use a real email address. Use your real details when you sign up so that the company knows where to send your gift! Remember that they have been proven legitimate, so will send you your free gift if you do everything legitimately!
Step 2 : Try an advertiser's offer
Basically all you need to do in this step is complete one of the offers, this is where the freebie site make their money, if you complete an offer then the freebie site will recieve commission for it. So if you complete Coral which will only cost you £5 to complete, the freebie site gets £25 from Coral. The two best offers are Lovefilm Free DVD rental trial (where you rent any two DVD's for free!) and Coral (bet £5 on a sport). I would reccommend you do Coral as it credits in an hour and is really simple to do, Lovefilm however can become complicated and takes up to 4 weeks to credit! You can also try one of the other offers, most are gambling offers. Don't skip this step! You must complete this step to get your free gift!
Step 3 : Refer some friends
This part is a lot easier than it seems, especially now with free gift sites getting so popular. There's lots of people online who want a free iPhone, Touch or macbook too, so start referring them! You only need to get a few signups before you'll be finished. You can ask your friends or your online buddies. I already got a free iPhone without even having to ask my friends for help - there's lots of people online who want a free iPhone like you! One of the easiest ways to get a referral is to do a favour for a friend and ask them to sign up in return. That way, you both can get a free gift!
Basic rules
Don't break these rules! This is the only reason that you won't get your free gift, so make sure you follow these rules!
- One account per household - don't use a public computer to sign up!
- Use real information - this is a proven legitimate site and they will not give out your information.
- Only complete each offer once! You cannot complete the same offer again, even for different freebies.
- Don't try to cheat the system. This site has been proven legitimate, and they will catch you if you try to cheat. If you do everything legitimately, by following this guide, you will get a free gift!
Thats all, just follow my guide and you will have your free gift in no time.
www.gifts.freebiejeebies.co.uk/86180
By iPhonesFree
23|12|2008 18:32
http://Apple-Freebiejeebies.co.uk
How do I get a Free Apple iPhone 3G?
Easy. I got my Free iPhone 3G from the Freebiejeebies network and so can you! It's so easy to get your free iPhone through these easy to follow steps because these companies bank on you thinking they are scams, but once you know how to earn one free gift, you can earn them all. This method has been proven to work by the BBC and CNN.
If you follow the Three Simple Steps of signing up, completing a single offer and referring a few friends, I guarantee you will receive your free gift!
http://Apple-Freebiejeebies.co.uk