Oh man, I've been busy with PS2 games that I totally forgot the update has arrived. Time to see what the fuss is all about!

Same here. The Friends channel froze for 20-30 seconds both times I backed out of viewing details.

Tails, did you have to change your profile gender to female to get those female avatar clothes?

No, I just picked a female character at the "start point" and modified it.

Huh. Guess I'm the only one who made avatar based on myself. Oh well.

So how much space does each game installation typically take?

Mine was based on myself, I just figured I'd look better with white skin, large red eyes, pointy ears, and shark teeth.

I tried to make mine as close to myself as possible, right down to the boring ass clothes I'd wear.

This chart gives the space a game will take up along with the time it saves you, it's being updated as new info arrives:

So how much time are you saving? - Xbox 360 NXE Hard Drive Install Chart

I installed Fable II, I suppose it loads a little bit faster but honestly my game seemed to lag/skip around much more after. Hopefully just a fluke, I noticed that browsing the menus/inventory wasn't as much of a pain in the ass.

Thanks for that. I'm a little disappointed though, I was planning on doing an HD Install for Lost Odyssey to cut down on the random battle load times, but it takes a grotesque amount of space. Looking at the chart, what's surprising for me is that of all the games for the system, Halo 3, heavily marketed by Microsoft, is said to be worse!

No data for Ace Combat 6 yet.

I don't suppose Xbox original games would take advantage of this feature?

Yes, a game released over a year before a new feature was added to the dashboard, a feature that during the development of Halo 3, hell probably even at the time of release, Microsoft probably didn't even know was going to happen let alone Bungie. That game, that game so heavily marketed by Microsoft doesn't work with that feature properly, the absolute bastards, damn Microsoft and all the evil they stand for, etc, etc.

Woah, chill out man. I just found it a little surprising, that's all.

Well, I tried out an install for Mass Effect and elevators aside, it's a huge difference. There's a significant reduction in the amount of stuttering and texture pop-in that occurs, and load times are a major improvement. Also, like Fable 2, menu navigation seems smoother. I also didn't see any signs of loading messages when running around the Citadel in the spots where I'd usually get it.

Hell, just watch the opening sequence and you'll notice improvements right away.

Am I the only one disgusted by Microsoft's lack of creativity when it came to Avatar art style? I mean could they try any harder to make it Mii 1.5?

That aside I do like the new look and feel, it's really slick and far less clunky and more open than the old design. I'm currently installing a game, and hope to see some improvement here.

The only thing that would make this update complete is for me to get better iPod playback. Although I'm able to use my computer now there may come the time when I want to use my iPod for music again. First of all ~ 10,000 songs in Xbox Media player gets reduced to ~ 8400 in the game, it takes forever to access in game, and shuffle wasn't really shuffle (it was more like skip a song or 3, play next track). I understand that system resources had something to do with this, but I'm hoping that this is something that can and was solved with the update. We shall see.

While a lack of originality is not exactly a GOOD THING by itself, the fact of the matter is if you were trying to court casual gamers you'd do the exact same thing.

They didn't even rip off the smirk.

I mean, come on.

I thought that I'd chime in with my thoughts on the new dashboard and posted my comments up on Prime Gamer: Prime Gamer Before the hate-train arrives, my thoughts on the NXE

http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/Ed...vatar-body.png

I was at home for lunch so I installed the NXE and made an avatar. The new dashboard looks nice enough I guess but I never had any issues with the old one. I'm sure after a couple of weeks I'll get used to it and it'll seem like it was always like that.

I have to say that the new Guide button boxes are ugly though, like the one you get when you switch off the system from the controller.

http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/nu...vatar-body.png

Here's mine, although it doesn't much look like me. The clothes are right, but the hair and body size are completely wrong. Microsoft would like to pretend that none of us enjoy the occasional donut.

Apparently they give you the gamerpic too (avatarpic-l.png), handy if you made your avatar your new gamerpic. I chucked my FFXI moogle for myself pretty much.

http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/ku...vatarpic-l.png

Not the one I have now but it was the first one I saved. I'm kind of having too much fun snapping pics of my avatar, because it's so easy and quick to do, I'm just always changing it.

http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/Ed...vatarpic-l.png

I figured I'd be aloof and face the other way.

The first time I saw yours I thought it looked like someone who was having trouble working out where the camera was. :p

I think for the first few weeks as everyone plays with the new thing then a lot of people are going to have very similar looking gamerpics. I'll probably stick with that for a while then go back to using the HAWX plane.

http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/Te...vatar-body.png

I'M THE KING OF ROCK N ROLL

You also look about 20 years too old there. It really doesn't look anything like you.

Couldn't quite get the hair right, but here it is:

http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/MR...vatar-body.png

Reminds me of an album cover... but for avatars!

Honestly? I don't like the feel of the dashboard so far. Maybe I have to grow into it but I found it hard to find my theme settings and some of my Xbox Live settings.

Also, how did you guys find your avatars on the Xbox Live site?