This is what I've been waiting a month for.

I called XBox, using the friendly 1-800-4MY-XBOX phone number. The number obviously dropped me off in a phone bank in India. No big deal. The guy seemed friendly enough. He explained that indeed the cables only work once but he’d be happy to have a Data Migration Kit (that’s Microsoft speak for fancy USB transfer cable) sent to me free of charge. I went through all the details with him and he gave me a fancy reference number. Enter problem two.

The reference number is a nice gesture, but for the life of me I was unable to find any place on support.xbox.com that allowed me to enter a reference number and find out the status of my “order.” Whatever, the guy said it could take up to 4 weeks to arrive. Ridiculous, I know, but it’s Microsoft. What else is new?

Unfortunately the story escalated today — rather three days ago when this was actually written. Bored, I called Microsoft back to check up on the reference number. Guess what, the order was never actually processed. There was some sort of “error” that caused the order to not be placed. Instead of fixing the “error” nothing was done about it. So here I am, still without a cable and a brand spanking new reference number for a new kit. Of course, I still have no ability to check this number without calling India back, but hey, at least they gave me that number.

Installing

Considering this is a completely new operating system for the XBox 360, I figured the download would take a while and was planning to wait a few days after the update dropped on Wednesday. To my surprise, the updated downloaded and installed in less than five minutes. Once installed, you’re treated to a wild, but strange, introduction video.

Setup

After the video, I was asked to choose which account to login to. Once logged in, I began the avatar creation process. When I first heard about NXE avatars I figured it was a pretty cheesy Mii rip-off. It seemed to cheapen the 360 experience a bit. They also seemed pointless. All that said, I did have fun creating my avatar and trying to get it to look like me. I’d show you how it turned out, but short of taking a picture of my tv (which is lame) I can’t get the image off — the XBox.com site won’t display them yet.

Dashboard

I don’t even know if it’s called the dashboard anymore, but that’s what I’ll call it for lack of a better term. Despite looking completely cluttered and slightly unorganized, finding what you’re looking for is fairly simple. The graphics make the old “blade” system look rather archaic (although that is more or less what you get when you hit the XBox button on the controller) and look awesome in HD. There is now a quick button to the Marketplace to make purchasing Rock Band songs even easier. Also easier to find is the newsfeed that was added in the last console update, if you’re into that sort of thing.

Games

If there is a game currently in the drive, the first panel on the Games blade (are they still called blades?) is dedicated to that game. In my case, there is a pretty cool image of a member of the Brotherhood of Steel letting me know Fallout 3 is currently ready to go. Subsequent panels feature recently played games and a much better way to look through a games achievements.

One of the NXE features that I didn’t find out about until recently is the ability to install games to the hard drive. It took about 10 minutes to install Fallout 3 to the hard drive and while I didn’t really notice any in-game load differences, the initial launch seemed more snappy. Though playing a game without hearing the crazy-loud disc drive was a huge bonus.

Netflix

A huge addition to the NXE, and one of the reasons I left Blockbuster, is the ability to stream movies from Netflix. This comes in the form of a 3MB download that, once run, gives you an activation code to enter on Netflix’s website. Once activated, about 30 seconds, my instant queue was brought up. There is no way to add titles to the queue, though you can remove titles and rate them. Quality is pretty good and looks a little worse than a typical HDTV broadcast (I tested with an episode of the Office). The function of the Netflix portion of the NXE is great and goes a long way in making the 360 an actual entertainment hub, especially for us Mac users.

Network

The 360 is notorious for having trouble handling extended networks using Apple routers — using multiple routers to extend a wi-fi signal. In my house, I do just that. My 360 is on the complete opposite end of the house from the initial router and, despite an AirPort Express relaying the signal only 20 feet away, the 360 has trouble with the network. Now, I have absolutely no proof or way to test this, but it seems that with the update I have better signal strength. Again, there’s no way to know if this is a placebo effect or not, but it does seem quicker, especially when downloading things from the Marketplace.

Final Thoughts

Note: One thing I want to test but haven’t yet had time to do so is the DVD playback. The 360’s playback has always been mediocre at best, especially when displaying text. I’m hoping that the NXE update addresses this issue, but I’m not going to hold my breath.

All in all I’m pretty impressed with the New XBox Experience. Looking at the pre-release features it looked like the NXE could be a lot of eye candy and very little substance, but instead the update is a welcome change. While the avatars do seem a bit cheesy, they aren’t too bad. Unfortunately I can see the money hounds on the horizon as paid avatar updates and themes will come — there’s already a spot for it on the avatar editing screen. It’s a nice update and if you have a 360, be sure to download the update on Wednesday.

As if playing Rock Band wasn’t one of the greatest group gaming experiences to come along in years, it appears that a new accessory is set to amp up the fun even more by bringing an “interactive light and smoke stage show” to your already thrashing performances. Apparently you can already pre-order this so-called Rock Band Stage Kit from GameStop for 100 bucks

(Via Engadget.)

The first two years of my college career were light on video game playing. I owned a Gamecube, which I had bought to play Resident Evil. The Gamecube brought some enjoyment in the form of zombie killing and Tie Flighter shooting, though, there wasn’t much else that got me going. I pre-ordered Zelda: Wind Waker but really didn’t know why. I never went through with the purchase. The Gamecube wasn’t satisfying and when Square announced that Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles was best played with four GameBoy Advances attached, I had all but given up. The Gamecube was sold to EB Games for an insane amount of credit (the day will forever be remembered by all those involved) and never thought of again.

The new Playstation 2 was broken in with over 110 hours of Final Fantasy X play. This, of course, was nowhere near enough time to complete all the side quests and acquire all of the ultimate weapons. It was, however, enough time to make the final battle a walk in the park and to renew my love affair with the video game industry. I suffered through the insane difficultly of Devil May Cry only to be disappointed by the horrible airplane ending. I got frustrated with my teammates in SOCOM and found the best way to complete the missions was by shooting them and doing everything alone. I beat pimps and Yakuza to a groovin’ 80’s soundtrack in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. I enjoyed the comical J-Pop Final Fantasy X-2 and dominated the competition in both NCAA Football and Baseball. I returned to my zombie killing ways all while protecting the president’s idiot daughter in Resident Evil 4, put over 100 hours into Final Fantasy XII and, most recently, shredded frets like there was no tomorrow in Guitar Hero II.

The Playstation 2 has brought me countless hours of entertainment and fun over the last four years but it’s time to lay it to rest. With a heavy heart I will be trading in my Playstation 2 and all 11 games I own for it. While I can’t expect a repeat of the epic Gamecube trade in, the credit earned will go to fund an XBox 360. While I won’t be able to play another Final Fantasy game and a little bit of me will die inside when my money goes to Microsoft, I look forward to new titles to draw my attention and bring me years of entertainment value.