I got my NXE today, just like all you XBOX 360 lovers have. Today, Major Nelson provided his list of things to do when your update is done. Cheggit:
1) Create (or Customize) your Avatar – You can spend as much (or as little) time as you want in the Avatar Editor to personalize your little guy/girl
Bonus: When you are done with #1, be sure to take a Gamer Picture of your Avatar.
In the Avatar editor, choose Gamer Picture. You can use the controls to
move your avatar around, zoom in and out or even change the background
color (press Y)2) Explore the all new dashboard. (hint: use the trigger and bumpers to quickly scroll up and down or left and right)
3) PAR-TAY! Check out Xbox LIVE Parties and chat
with up to seven of your friends. Go to the Friends channel…choose a
friend who is online and press Y to get the party started. You can also
hit the Xbox 360 Guide button > Party >Start a Party. Once you do
that, send off invites to your party (since one does not make a very
good party…does it?)4) Themes. While any themes you work will NXE,
check out some of the new themes via My Xbox and select your profile
(second slot) and then change theme. Xbox 360, Spectrum, Day and Night
are new themes that available as part of your NXE upgrade…check them
out.5) Marketplace on Xbox.com. This new feature lets
you search, browse, and purchase games and videos while you are away
from your console. You can also perform account management functions
like changing your billing information, viewing your purchase history,
and downloading items you already own.6) Netflix – Xbox LIVE Gold Member and you have
Netflix? If you are in the US you can stream thousands of videos (some
in HD) directly from Netflix to your Xbox 360. Not a member? Sign up
for a free trial at Xbox.com/netflix7) Install to / Play from Hard Drive. With the game
in the tray, return to your dashboard. (pressing the guide button then
Y works as always) then go to My Xbox. From here press Y, which will
bring up a new menu which will allow, among other things the ability to
install a game to your hard drive.
Hint: You can still use the Xbox 360 guide while installing a game to keep in touch with your friends or start a Party.Bonus: Before you do #7, be sure to set up what happens when you turn on your Xbox 360.
My Xbox->System Settings>Console settings. Then choose Start up
to to choose Disc, Xbox Dashboard or Windows Media Center. Once you are
done there…check the option right below it: Autostart. This tell your
Xbox 360 what to do when you insert a game. The choices are enable or
disable. I have mine set to disable so I can easily use install to hard
drive.8) Delete Zero Gamerscore games. You can
remove any games from your games played list that you have earned no
achievements or gamerscore. Press the Xbox 360– guide button, navigate
left to the games section and choose Achievements. From here choose the
game with zero gamerscore you want to remove and press X (Delete Game
History.)9) Press the Xbox 360 button on your controller to see the all new Guide. The
team has added more functionality than the old guide, while making it
more responsive. It’s a quick way to check your messages, see who is
online or start a party.10) Take a look at Community Games in the Games
Marketplace. For the first time in the history of console gaming,
thousands of games developed by the creative community will be
available to the public.
All of these recommendations are solid, except #7, which is suspect. Bingegamer.net provides a chart of the load times of a harddisk drive installation vs. the standard DVD route. It looks to me like load times vary on a game-to-game basis, which is odd. For example, the comment on Halo 3 is:
Load times are worse (10 seconds longer) when installed [to HDD] and at almost every level.
Doh. Consult the chart for a rough suggestion of what you can expect by installing a game to HDD.
I’m looking forward to party mode. I’m going to put my team on chat. There are far too many people on Halo 3 whose mouths I’d rather not hear.
Enjoy NXE!
