My favorite week of the year

Monday, July 14, 2008 » gaming thought

That's right. If there's anything that can drag me out of my posting coma, it's E3.

So what did Microsoft announce today? A lot of stuff that I'm surprised to say I'm looking forward to, actually.

"New Xbox Experience"

It's a new dashboard for your Xbux! While I'm OK with the current blades design for the most part, it does kind of look like a neon billboard covered in ads. (If you apply a custom theme to it, it looks like a neon billboard designed by the typical MySpace user. Also, it's still covered in ads.) Any redesign to make the layout a little nicer is welcome, so I was surprised to see that the above image (thanks, ArsTechnica) is the actual interface. It's looking very slick and XMB/Front Row-ish. I'm sure they'll find a way to cram some ads in there by release, but it sure makes for a nice demo.

Avatars

This is Microsoft blatantly ripping off Nintendo's Miis so I should probably be up in arms like most of the Internet, but I'm a sucker for customizeable characters. I'm looking forward to building my own Avatar, but in support of Nintendo, I'll do it with a disapproving look on my face the whole time. Extra points, though, if I can make one wearing a shirt with my wicked N7 gamerpic. Or even better, wearing this N7 shirt.

Installable games

NO MORE DRIVE NOISE. Oh my god. They're saying the major advantage of this will be reduced loading times, but I beg to differ. The worst part of those Mass Effect elevators wasn't the length, but that I could hear my Xbox trying to take flight during the ride. This may even convince me to go buy a bigger drive. I've actually been doing so much disc swapping on the PS3 lately that I'd be all for a console with permanent installs and—god forbid—CD keys at this point, but I know that'll never happen.

Netflix

Now you can watch stuff in your Netflix queue right on your 360. I had to read a few articles about this before someone mentioned that it's only for Gold subscribers. I was upset at first, but then decided that this would actually be a good excuse to upgrade my account. (I have an unused 13 month card lying around, anyway.) It is, unfortunately, only for the movies currently available to stream, but the streaming library seems to get bigger every day and watching them at my computer desk (in IE, no less) is not appealing. I just wish this was happening before the fall update because there are a ton of movies in my streaming queue that I'd watch right now.

Final Fantasy XIII

This didn't really faze me beyond the fact that Sony lost such a high-profile exclusive. This is the first FF game that doesn't really interest me in the least, although in the back of my mind I know I'll probably get it, and it'll be the PS3 version. Good for non-PS3 owners, though. But please, Xbox owners on the Internet: Please stop acting like you have a personal vendetta against Sony and that this will be the evil tyrant's downfall. I really don't understand this.