The New Xbox Experience!..

Well, I'm finally going to use my contributor status for once to post my opinion of the 'New' Xbox 'Experience' (or NXE for short).

I admit that from the time it was announced at E3 until the present, I was less than enthused at the prospect of having my old interface, which I personally loved, replaced by the typical Vista-esque interface that Microsoft has been attempted to push on us for the last few years. Nevertheless I kept an open mind going into it, and I have to admit it isn't all bad.


When you first log in, you wait for about 5min for the update to download and install, and when it finishes you are faced with a character creation menu (see picture), and an absolutely atrocious avatar. For the most part, the customization isn't that bad, especially if you consider just how often you see your avatar anyways. It lacks decent looking facial features, such as noses, eyes, and eyebrows, at least in my opinion, I was extremely disappointed by the selection of beards (seriously, where's my viking beard?), and the clothing is rather generic, however as long as you don't attempt to make your avatar true to life, you should be able to produce one that you at least won't hate. I decked my bald man out with a chin beard, monocle, and sports jacket, and I've seen others create avatars which resemble clowns, hippies, and pimps. With a little bit of creativity, the possibilities are nearly endless.

Compared to the Wii's Miis or w/e they're called (I haven't tried the PS3 avatar thing, so I won't comment on it), it is vastly superior. However, as I hinted at above, I strongly recommend NOT making a character that looks like yourself. There is a strong chance he'll come out odd, gay, or even retarded looking, so try and go for a look more original look, lest you be another generic avatar no one takes a second glance at.

Once you have completed creating your avatar, you'll find yourself staring breathlessly at the vast new expanses of the NXE, taking in the wonderful new features such as _________, and ______ ___________. Seriously though, the NXE doesn't really add a whole lot of features to the previous interface. The only significant feature of this update, besides avatars and a new interface, is the ability to make groups, which allows for party gaming and voice chat with multiple people at the same time, features that should have been added years ago. I'm not particualarily surprised however, as it is more or less what I expected, and Microsoft didn't exactly claim that they were going to add anything more, it's just that they brand it as a 'New Experience' when all it was is a new skin to an old interface.

A good way Microsoft could have promoted this would have been by adding a few free 'avatar games', playable by anyone with the new interface. These could have just been simple things such as bumper cars or musical chairs. They would have been immediatly popular, and would have expanded the whole avatar promotion, however no such system exists. There are games which include, however it is limited to only a few, which you have to pay for, and consist of your avatar standing there, presumably doing silly little animations occasionally as to not look like a boring sack of bricks. Avatar games would have most likely increased my attention span of the new interface from just under an hour to at least over 3.

However pessimistic I may seem, the interface, for the most part, is an improvement over the previous one. Marketplace has a MUCH better layout now, and the friends menu, however spread out and annoying, allows you to see each of your friend's avatars in either their own private space, or the party which they happen to be in along with the rest of the party members. For those of us who prefer the old interface, the same basic layout is available by pressing the middle button on your controller. The same old simplified friends and message menu, as well as media, settings, etc. tabs are all present, the only one missing is marketplace.

One major concern with the NXE is that gamer pictures and themes would become void with the new system, but need not worry, as gamer pictures have not changed at all, and themes get a neat new look. You can even take a picture of your avatar and make it your gamer pic. The themes themselves did not change, rather the main background (the one you saw when you first got on your Xbox) is stretched across the screen, then cut in half by the bland gray floor that covers the bottom part of your screen. As of my knowledge, there is no way to select another background for the same theme, however I did see them when I was browsing through some of the settings menus. Most themes seem to look OK on the NXE, some even look better, however there will always be the few that it absolutely ruins. With new themes based around the new interface soon to come, it's not much to complain about.


Overall the 'New Xbox Experience' is an improvement over the old interface. Although it is not really needed, it brings a fresh look to the system and should be welcomed by all gamers. Although it lacks new features, only adding what should have been with the original interface, and even suffers from a few bugs, it makes up for it in appearance and accessibility. If you own an Xbox, I recommend jumping on for an hour and playing with it, and you may even have a little bit of fun.

An update of the week, TGS and the Halo 3: Recon.

First off, TGS began this week and Microsoft has confirmed the Halo 3 expansion that was supposed to be announced at E3. As many beleived it is based around the ODST "Hell Divers" and will be a standalone product with as new single player campaign as well as new multiplayer content.



Also at Tokyo Game Show new details have been released on Fable 2, Resident Evil 5, and The Last Remenant, being some of the biggest games shown off there.

Tommorow I'll receive my beta code for Call of Duty: World at War which may or may not define my opinion on this new Treyarch game, which I am becoming more and more optimistic about as I seem more footage of it. I'll have my impressions of the beta by the end of the week if Gamestop sends me the code like I'm hearing and mayby I'll be able to get my computer set up and record some footage, either way I'll have impressions on the game by the end of the week, so we'll be able to see if Treyarch can make a game when they're not being forced to rush it.

Last of all, I now have my heart set on going upon an epic quest to mod my Xbox 360 so I can download a leaked copy of Fallout 3, like my British friend has back in Essex.

Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway

The new installment of Gearbox's WWII epic has finally arrived, despite 2 years of delays and a lot of criticism that Hells Highway's more cinematic feel will ultimately change the feel of the Brothers in Arms franchise. After playing and beating the game, it is easy to say that it lives up to both the franchise and Gearbox's skill at making a great game and although to some Hells Highway is just another in the endless stack of WWII games, Hell's Highway is without a doubt the most significant since Call of Duty 2.

Continuing the story of Sargeant Mathew Baker from the first game, Road to Hill 30, Hell's Highway observes Baker's story in a far more cinematic way with many cut-scenes and flashbacks that detail events from the first game. While the story focuses on Baker, and the trauma of all the men who have died under his command, it also shows Baker's close friendship with Joe Harstock, the main character of Earned in Blood, and loosely shines on individual members of Bakers squad including some who had died in Road to Hill 30. This shows that while Hell's Highway's story focuses on the actions of the 101st Airborne at Operation Market Garden the story is more like that of a movie, containing many subplots such as Baker's "cursed" pistol, the stories of Baker's men, such as a level where a young soldier goes AWOL, running off with a Danish woman while a city was being bombed, and just as significant, Baker's battle with PDST.



Graphically, the game looks great. A few people may have said that the game looks like Call of Duty 3, but as anyone plays the game, they will see that Hell's Highway, while it isn't a new advancement in graphics, is comparable to most other first person shooters. The game's framerate runs smoother throughout the experience, despite only a few stutters during the begining of the game. The destructible cover also works well in coordination with the game's physics, wood splinters realistically and should you throw a grenade or order a special weapons team to fire a bazooka at a rocket at a sandbag wall, it'll shatter, of course the real treat of that would be seeing whoevers taking cover behind that go flying and most likely lose a limb or two.



The gameplay in Hells Highway, while it is not an upheaval, is a refinement of that of the two previous games, that introduces a cover system and more cinematic violence that could be compareable to Saving Private Ryan. Like the two previous games, Hell's Highway puts you in the place of a sqaud leader commanding up to three sqauds, ordering them to cover and letting the game's smart AI do the rest. Brother's in Arms' AI is one of the major selling points of this game, in fact, having AI that is smart enough to take cover and fire at enemies without running around like complete retards, standing still, or glitching into objects. The cover system in Hell's Highway obviously borrows from that of Rainbow Six Vegas, except it uses one of the better destructible cover systems I have seen in a FPS, although still not reaching the perfection of having an entirely destructible enviroment, that many false promises can not live up to. Hell's Highway's violence, that many long-time fans of the series have called over the top and untrue to the series is a complete overstatement. As I have said earlier, it feels more down and gritty like Saving Private Ryan, than over the top and super violent like Gears of War, and the complaints themselves had only been about limbs being blown off in slow motion should you throw a grenade at an enemy position or get a headshot.




In the end, this leaves Hell's Highway as another great game in the Brothers in Arms franchise and has certainly left many people waiting for the next installment. While there are many complaints about an unfinsihed multiplayer and terrible sections of the game in buildings, Hell's Highway is overall a great game that any fan of tactical shooters should play.

I was on TV last night!

So on Monday I got a GTA IV game invite from G4's Mr Sark. I joined the game in which they were doing a bunch of stunts for Xplay and we did a bunch of pretty cool things like doing the Swingset glitch and turning the UN Building into the Alamo until Sark demanded that we drive him to a strip club. I also had the opertunity to ask a very great question, which I did. "Sark, you know theres a lot of people on TV who are obsessed with Morgan Webb right? Well I think she's pretty damn ugly, so please tell us if she is ugly in real life as well." I remember him saying yes in one way or another.

Look for the Gamertag StaticFoXhOuNd. It's always in Pink after the swingset, although I don't think they got a good shot of me in the swingset.