Your Guide To Gaming

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On November 4th, I talked about a completely new Xbox update that was being released, which would give the Xbox a full experience overhaul both in appearance and functionality.  The release of the update, November 19th, has come and gone and finally brought some new features to the Xbox, some awesome and some not so much.

Perhaps the coolest feature, as mentioned before, is the brand new customizable avatars that were introduced. Players now show up on screen during chats, gaming sessions and profile displays as a small character that can be completely customized. The new update also provided tons of clothing and accessory options for the avatars, and the Xbox Live team plans to release all kinds of clothing updates in the future based on new fashions in the market and even holiday events. The feature, however, can be somewhat annoying if you really don’t care about this kind of stuff. There is an option to pick a pre-made character out of a group of default characters if you want to keep it short and sweet. The full customization does come off as a bit silly.

The Xbox dashboard also was changed completely and can now be considered more of a 3D environment. Instead of the old “blades” that can be swapped back and forth, users are now treated with a rotating and moving set of images. Many background screens even move or include animated features, such as flashing lights, floating bubbles or random sounds. Another awesome fix the Xbox team implemented was the creation of a much simpler menu that pops up when the center Xbox button is pressed. The old menu, if most remember, sometimes took an excruciating amount of time to appear, the new one rightfully does not.

Some extra features include a party feature where players can gather in a group (maximum of and chat through voice or text, organize gaming plans, or trade player info and items. Netflix also took the lead and offers a full online movie rental service through Xbox Live.

Having downloaded the update and played around with it a bit, is it better than the old experience? In my opinion, yes, totally, and the cool new features add plenty more content to experiment with outside of playing video games. If you have the chance to download the new update do so, I assure you that you will not regret it.