Xbox 360 2010 dashboard "upgrade".......yuck. (1 Viewer)

[Kevin M]

The new dashboard is boxy and very white, bit hard on the eyes IMO. I find it amazing that you had more control of your environment with the original blades from five years ago than you do now with all of these "upgrades", I mean you could actually change the color back then, this seems like a default setting that you would want to change because no one likes this original default setting....except of course that you CAN'T change it!

Also, isn't there a worry about burn in with HD displays? Bright white centered squares in the middle of a darker field isn't a good thing for many of these displays that are prone to "Burn In" guys.


Aside from that I guess functionality is a bit improved except that downloads seem to take forever now and the new Box windows cover up the themes that MS charges $ for even more than the previous dashboard "upgrade" did.....If I pay MS my hard earned cash for a product then it would be nice to actually be able to SEE it! The Wii-ish sounds are a bit annoying as well but at least you can disable those, I am sorry for the whinging and whining but IMO MS takes a step backwards with each "improvement".

 

[Ralphie_B]

I hate it too. They also re-did the Netflix gui to have the same awful scrolling as the rest of the dashboard (which I find nausea-inducing). Glad to hear I'm not the only one!
Microsoft, PLEASE give us some options (maybe, say, a "classic" mode that would bring back the old color scheme and scrolling)?

 

[DaveF]

Haven't turned on my 360 for a month or so, so I haven't gotten the update yet.


As for burn-in: who leaves their Xbox on the menu screen for hours and hours, that it would be a problem? That's a non-concern.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

It was changed to work better with Kinect, which makes sense. That said, we'll see how many people buy Kinect.

 

[Kevin M]

I understand that the screen dimmer on the 360 will make the burn in problem a non-issue.....I guess my main problem is with aesthetics and some glitchy functionality with Netflix and downloads.


EDIT: After giving it some thought I realize that some types of monitors will burn in in less than 5 min. So IMO the concern is still valid depending on the monitor you have and the setting you may have turned up way too high, as some people do.

 

[Trevor Schell]

I don't like the new look of the Dashboard either. I guess we have no choice though

 

[mattCR]

Originally Posted by Morgan Jolley

It was changed to work better with Kinect, which makes sense. That said, we'll see how many people buy Kinect.

So far, it's about 4M... which is a pretty shocking number to me, considering I think it sucks.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

To be fair, that's 4ish million at about 1/2 to 1/3 the price of Kinect for an individual move controller and some people may have bought two.


Why do you think it sucks?

 

[DaveF]

The new UI looks like the old one, just flatter and whiter. Not sure what's there to get upset about.


I'm curious about the Kinect, but it's so huge it won't fit my TV cabinet, seems to require a much larger room than I have, and is expensive at $150. And after getting burned with the Xbox Racing Wheel -- nice hundred-dollar peripheral that doesn't actually work with any games -- I can't find a place for the Kinect in my system or my heart right now. If it becomes popular with good game support, I'll reconsider.

 

[mattCR]

Originally Posted by Morgan Jolley

To be fair, that's 4ish million at about 1/2 to 1/3 the price of Kinect for an individual move controller and some people may have bought two.


Why do you think it sucks?

I've played it. There are some things that are unique (the voice control is interesting) but it's performance for how it actually works in games is wonky. You have to be in almost the exact right location in a room, and try pulling that off with small kids. Our 8 year old continuously gets "YOUR TOO CLOSE" "TOO FAR". This is what the Wii got right. By focusing on the transmission of an object, the other factors don't matter. If you have a wide mix in your family of sizes, it also complicates the way the thing works.


The games respond slow, and you do tend to find that not having buttons to initiate a reaction is a real negative. Being able to wave around to do things is unique, but it lowers timing issues... ie, I may want to be ready to do something, but not do it yet.. that's not at all possible with the Kinect. Maybe it will take a learning curve. But this seems as though it's just underpowered for what it's trying to accomplish. Performance in games meant for it seems.. boggy, and even the best games (the dance game) also seems foolish because it's too focused in on being "exact" which sucks the fun right out of it. *shrug*

 

[Morgan Jolley]

What games have you played on it?


Honestly, I'm looking forward to games that don't fit a typical game mold. Sports games, minigame collections, racing games...they've all been done very successfully elsewhere. Child of Eden and Dance Central are games that I think could stand out on this platform. The question is: are the new kinds of experiences going to be fun or just new?