Major Nelson Clears Up The "New Xbox Experience"

I won't go into too many details, because Major Nelson and his co-host "e" do a fantastic job in describing all the new Xbox Experience stuff in their latest podcast. Lets face it, the new dashboard replacement, the new Xbox Experience, is scary. I've been using the blade system for a year, and as a male that is slowly getting older, change is scary (and those darn kids won't stay off my lawn)!

Thankfully, that lovely podcast has helped to clear up some of the things that have made me most worried. Yes, the entire system will look different but essentially the core mechanics will stay the same.

One of the new features was the "play from hard drive" feature, which allows for faster load times. Booting a game from the HD will require the disk to be in the drive for a start check (sorry, kids... this means no renting a game and stealing a copy). They confirmed this will work on all titles, not just newer games written specifically for it. It will never be mandatory so the PS3 install Nazis can just quiet down right now. And lastly, yes, it works on multi-disk games.

Live parties, such a good idea that really should have been there from the start. Hindsight and all, I know. It must also be noted that a live party is not a mob. You are not required to be doing the same thing at all times, half the party can be playing Halo 2, and half can be playing UNO. It is more or less a "pre-lobby lobby" if that makes any sense. This can also be used for multi-person voice chat.

Finally, one new detail that I did not know is that the Xbox Live Marketplace will be accessible from xbox.com soon. You will be able to purchase titles online from a web browser instead of the traditional blade navigator. This, my friends, is a fantastic idea. Additionally, it's a remote auto-push, so anything you purchase will automatically be queued up for download remotely, no real word what happens if your machine is off, however. This is extremely nice for people who are stuck in an office all day and decide they wish to buy a movie, or game remotely. Not to mention browsing a database is easier with a desktop.

Major Nelson covers a LOT more stuff than what I've mentioned (about an hour and a half more), so if you're interested feel free to hit up his site. He's a good guy and deserves the recognition. Seriously though, I want the kids to say off my lawn. I had to pick up a granola wrapper and a can of soda yesterday. Heathens!

Show #287: E3 and the new Xbox Experience [Major Nelson]