Seems weird to be writing about the Xbox New Xbox Experience because, after all, I don’t have an Xbox… but my son does :) And when he returned home from college last night for Thanksgiving, he came toting his 360. And so I got my first look at the NXE.
First off – he complained that he couldn’t find ANYTHING any more. We eventually got the thing hooked up to the home network again, but what once was a simple switch between wired and wireless was something that he instead struggled with for an hour – before it suddenly started working. No idea why.
His avatar was… well, I could never have picked him out of the crowd just going by his avatar. I had to help him redesign it because he didn’t know how he looked. It might be impossible for someone to do their own avatar. Andy doesn’t realize how SKINNY he is, and though he has tight, curly hair, the buzz cut is NOT the closest analogue to it. Plus, he didn’t want to add glasses like he actually wears, but glasses like he would like to wear.
Whatever, his avatar, after all.
We tried out the Nex Xbox Netflix Experience (NXNE), as I’m a Netflix subscriber. Having to add things to the “watch it now” queue on the laptop and then see them pop onto the screen on the Xbox was kinda weird. Movie browsing should be integrated into the Xbox, imo.
So quick review from my son: He hates the NXE, liked it back when everything was simple. I think he may grow to tolerate it. He called the NXE avatars total ripoffs of the Wii’s Miis, and of course, everyone is saying that and he is totally right about that. We couldn’t believe how Mii-like the avatars were.
Also, the clothing and color choices really suck. As an attempt to make an avatar that looks at all like you and wears clothes you might wear, it’s kind of a fail.