mitchellarrieta.com » XBox Live Experience http://mitchellarrieta.com Information on gaming, technology, gadgets, canadian immigration, make money online and more... Thu, 27 Oct 2011 19:04:06 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Microsof Xbox 360 NXE review http://mitchellarrieta.com/2008/11/microsof-xbox-360-nxe-review/ http://mitchellarrieta.com/2008/11/microsof-xbox-360-nxe-review/#comments Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:29:45 +0000 admin http://mitchellarrieta.com/2008/11/18/microsof-xbox-360-nxe-review/ The Xbox 360 was the first mass-market hi-def entertainment system to hit the market, and now three years later it’s hit a price point truly accessible to every household – credit crunch or not.

A few months ago Microsoft reduced the price of its console’s three SKUs – Arcade, Pro and Elite.

Xbox 360 Elite, [...]]]>

The Xbox 360 was the first mass-market hi-def entertainment system to hit the market, and now three years later it’s hit a price point truly accessible to every household – credit crunch or not.

A few months ago Microsoft reduced the price of its console’s three SKUs – Arcade, Pro and Elite.

Xbox 360 Elite, the 120GB beast complete with a slick black finish, is now on shelves for an impressive $399.99 – $50 cheaper and with more memory than the comparatively-lacklustre 20GB machine launched in 2005.

The HDD-less Arcade console meanwhile, which is packed with a 256MB memory card, wireless pad and five Xbox Live Arcade games, is in the shops for an incredible $199.99 – that’s almost a whole $200 cheaper than a PlayStation 3. Today, Xbox 360 is undoubtedly the best value HD games console on the market.

New Xbox Experience

“Accessible” seems to be the buzzword in the Xbox 360′s story up to 2009. From Wednesday 19th November the completely redesigned backend interface, the ‘New Xbox Experience’ begins streaming onto consoles worldwide as a free, mandatory update.

The new interface is smoother, slicker-looking and yes, makes accessing HD content a lot easier for the ever-lucrative expanded audience, a group which Microsoft’s has firmly in its sights this Christmas.

The redesign isn’t too dissimilar from Windows Media Player; boxes of content slide elegantly on a horizontal line, while indexes such as your Friends list and Video Marketplace – currently the only games console digital download service for movies in Europe – are selected on a vertical list.

As a whole, it’s far more well catered for hi-def displays than the original Xbox 360 backend. Menu boxes and the amount of information displayed by the console’s interface is expanded and spread out in higher resolutions , something that the old dashboard disappointingly lacked.

It looks and works wonderfully, and is certainly a world above the cluttered, sometime sluggish dashboard of the launch 360.

There’s also a ton of feature additions that improve the Xbox 360 as a whole; retail games can now be installed to the HDD for drastically shortened load times, and of course less noise coming from the fan vent on the side of the box.

The Xbox 360 Guide also seems to open faster and browsing through your movie and games collection in the iPod Cover View-style menu is effortless. Mii-like Avatars are also on hand to add personality to the animated backgrounds, which can be stunningly customised by new themes available on Xbox Live Marketplace.

Head to head

So it’s looking slicker and sporting an incredibly attractive new price point, but how does the Xbox 360 compare to the pricier, more technically plump PlayStation 3 after three years on the market? The answer is; very well.

The Xbox 360 may lack the built-in Wi-Fi and Blu-ray drive of Sony’s console (and in fact no HD disc playback at all with the ill-fated HD DVD add-on in the bin) but with currently the only games console movie download service in Europe, and now the ability to install games to hard disk, for gaming especially there’s little reason to feel stung by the Xbox’s lack of Blu’.

The mass of high-quality titles in the Xbox 360′s game library alone too – both on disc and digital – make it a real force to be reckoned with as far as gaming goes – and the 360 versions of many multi-format titles such as Fallout 3, which suffers graphical problems on Sony’s box, are still coming out on top.

But it’s often forgotten that Microsoft’s console is also an excellent media extender. You can share files from any PC running Windows XP or Vista, and Windows Media Player interchanges media files such as video and photos fluidly and with ease.

Every Xbox 360 model now also includes a built-in HDMI port, and the middle-ground Pro model has had an HDD memory bump to 60GB for no extra cost, making the box even more competitive with the PS3 where hardware and HD content is concerned.

Let’s also not forget Xbox Live, which boasts over 10 million subscribers and is hands-down the best online service on a games console.

Even after various component revisions, the actual hardware is admittedly still slightly noisy, and lacks the selection of full-1080p disc games boasted by the PlayStation 3.

But overall the Xbox 360 is a stunning HD games console at a price point that’s impossible for any gaming or movie enthusiast not to have underneath their television.

(Reviewed by Andy Robinson – TechRadar)

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]]> http://mitchellarrieta.com/2008/11/microsof-xbox-360-nxe-review/feed/ 1 Xbox 360 to offer first-ever Netflix HD streaming http://mitchellarrieta.com/2008/10/xbox-360-to-offer-first-ever-netflix-hd-streaming/ http://mitchellarrieta.com/2008/10/xbox-360-to-offer-first-ever-netflix-hd-streaming/#comments Thu, 30 Oct 2008 13:09:50 +0000 admin http://mitchellarrieta.com/2008/10/30/xbox-360-to-offer-first-ever-netflix-hd-streaming/ When Microsoft unveiled the plan for the new Xbox Live experience back at E3 2008, we were thrilled to hear that Netflix instant streaming was among the features announced.

That news just got a little sweeter now that Engadget HD is reporting that Xbox 360 owners will also [...]]]> (Credit: Engadget)

When Microsoft unveiled the plan for the new Xbox Live experience back at E3 2008, we were thrilled to hear that Netflix instant streaming was among the features announced.

That news just got a little sweeter now that Engadget HD is reporting that Xbox 360 owners will also be able to stream selected Netflix titles in HD.

While a list of HD-ready movies is not immediately available, some 300 titles will be ready for HD streaming when the service launches–along with the new Xbox Live experience–November 19.

Judging from the screen grab, it looks like the Netflix 360 player will gauge your Internet connection and decide whether or not your hookup can handle glorious high-definition content.

This is certainly big news for Xbox 360 owners, as no other device has the ability to stream Netflix in HD. Can you hear that? It’s the sound of a Roku player crying.

From: crave.cnet.com

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]]> http://mitchellarrieta.com/2008/10/xbox-360-to-offer-first-ever-netflix-hd-streaming/feed/ 2 New Xbox Experience and Avatar Creation http://mitchellarrieta.com/2008/10/new-xbox-experience-and-avatar-creation/ http://mitchellarrieta.com/2008/10/new-xbox-experience-and-avatar-creation/#comments Tue, 28 Oct 2008 00:09:40 +0000 admin http://mitchellarrieta.com/2008/10/27/new-xbox-experience-and-avatar-creation/ For those who can’t wait until November 19th, here is a really nice video showing the process for creating avatars on your Xbox 360 new Live Experience:

http://www.xbox.com/NR/rdonlyres/B59496E6-D737-4F63-8A82-C92D06F4F964/0/vidCreatingAvatarsHi.asx

Wuld you linke more information? visit the official XBOX site at http://www.xbox.com/en-CA/live/nxe/default.htm

Tags: , For those who can’t wait until November 19th, here is a really nice video showing the process for creating avatars on your Xbox 360 new Live Experience:

http://www.xbox.com/NR/rdonlyres/B59496E6-D737-4F63-8A82-C92D06F4F964/0/vidCreatingAvatarsHi.asx

Wuld you linke more information? visit the official XBOX site at http://www.xbox.com/en-CA/live/nxe/default.htm

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]]> http://mitchellarrieta.com/2008/10/new-xbox-experience-and-avatar-creation/feed/ 1 Microsoft's New Xbox Experience storage "solution": Free memory cards, discounted hard drives http://mitchellarrieta.com/2008/10/microsofts-new-xbox-experience-storage-solution/ http://mitchellarrieta.com/2008/10/microsofts-new-xbox-experience-storage-solution/#comments Tue, 14 Oct 2008 02:19:35 +0000 admin http://mitchellarrieta.com/2008/10/13/microsofts-new-xbox-experience-storage-solution-free-memory-cards-discounted-hard-drives/ Source: Engadget.com

Microsoft’s New Xbox Experience has been pored over and dated, but now that Major Nelson has revealed it requires “at least” 128MB storage available to work, where does that leave suckers Core and Arcade SKU Xbox 360 owners? Enter the Xbox 360 Memory Upgrade Program, doling [...]]]> Source: Engadget.com

Microsoft’s New Xbox Experience has been pored over and dated, but now that Major Nelson has revealed it requires “at least” 128MB storage available to work, where does that leave suckers Core and Arcade SKU Xbox 360 owners? Enter the Xbox 360 Memory Upgrade Program, doling out free 512MB MU’s or $20 20GB HDDs to Core owners, and a $30 20GB HDD + 3 months of Xbox Live package to Arcade owners looking to upgrade. November 19, Xbox Live becomes a storage-only affair (that goes for Netflix streams too, requiring 8MB of free space), so grab your serial number and console ID from the current Xbox 360 Dashboard and hit the registration website. Impressive customer service gesture to extend functionality for all, or more evidence of a short sighted and flawed dual-SKU launch plan that’s cost gamers and developers alike? All we know for sure is we’ve probably figured out where the profits from those $149 120GB HDDs are going.

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]]> http://mitchellarrieta.com/2008/10/microsofts-new-xbox-experience-storage-solution/feed/ 0 New Confirmed Feature For The New Xbox Experience http://mitchellarrieta.com/2008/10/new-confirmed-feature-for-the-new-xbox-experience/ http://mitchellarrieta.com/2008/10/new-confirmed-feature-for-the-new-xbox-experience/#comments Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:02:22 +0000 admin http://mitchellarrieta.com/2008/10/01/new-confirmed-feature-for-the-new-xbox-experience/

While you worrying about Xbox Live being down for another 4 hours last night, a new feature was added to the New Xbox Experience feature list. Xbox Live users who this fall take advantage of the Netflix Instant Stream service, can now experience Starz Play. Starz and Netflix inked a deal [...]]]>

While you worrying about Xbox Live being down for another 4 hours last night, a new feature was added to the New Xbox Experience feature list. Xbox Live users who this fall take advantage of the Netflix Instant Stream service, can now experience Starz Play. Starz and Netflix inked a deal to provide Netflix users with Starz Play access as part of there Netflix subscription.

Not stoping there, Netflix also added CBS and ABC to their list of partners. This fall Netflix will have all CBS and ABC shows on demand 24 hours after its original show time. These deals add significantly to a growing library of over 12,000 choices of movies and TV episodes that can be watched instantly through your Xbox 360.

Source: Analoghype.com

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