Xbox 360 guide to offer blades, no solid explanation of how

by Randy Nelson on Jul 14th 2008 8:45PM

The upcoming refresh of Xbox 360's user interface is mighty bold ... but what if you have a real soft spot for the oh-so-passé assortment of blades? Ambiguous news! Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten passes along word – via Major Nelson's blog – that the new Xbox "guide" will retain the blades-based interface, although it's still a little confusing as to exactly how.

In his update, Whitten says: "For everyone who loves the blades interface, it's not going away," and that "every feature and option [the blades offer] is available right from the guide." Confused? You're not alone. It sounds to us like a sort of "classic view" will be offered ... but, at the same time, like the guide will simply offer the same features. We took a vote and came up 50/50 on it. We'll be sure to press Microsoft for more details as E3 plays out.

[Update: Microsoft has demo'd the revised blade functionality to the media. Pressing the Xbox Guide button now brings up a more compact version of the blade-based "dashboard," rather than the traditional single pop-out Guide blade.]

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Tags: breakingnews, dashboard, E3, e308, hdtv, majornelson, Xbox-360, xbox-guide

Reader Comments (40)

In the conference video, they showed the blades in a smaller formar.

I think the blades will be in the in-game dashboard, everythime you press the Dashboard buton.

Exactly this. I noticed it while watching the conference, too.

Yep. Clearly shown as coming up when you hit the guide button. I hope that changes before launch, because it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Why not go the Sony route and give us an in game version of the dashboard?

@BananaBoat

The actual dash probably chews up too many resources to be used in-game.

im thinking what he means is when you press the center xbox guide button it shows up the old blades. maybe?

what im trying to say is...
your only a real man if you eat bull testicles and play call of duty at the same freakin time.

oh my god I jsut realized...

Favre came out of retirement. The Fucking Madden curse pulled him out of retirement just to keep the streak.

Favre is a damn baby.

He was one of my favorite players, but this whole coming out of retirement thing is ridiculous. If he isn't a Packer, I don't care for him. If he is a Packer, what a dick move to Rodgers.

Yeah guys... you were at the conference weren't you?

They showed the blades as being the new guide menu.

f*** man. this new dashboard looks really gay. when i say gay, i mean wii gay. sorry fernando but miis are for wiis. the only thing i could see gazing as a new interface is bull testicles and playboy models and everything with lots of testosterone.

I don't understand the constant comparisons to the Wii interface. Beyond the use of Avatars (a la Miis) they're nothing alike.

The new menu system has a lot more in common with the PS3's UI than the Wii's.

@reign: Wait, let me get this straight. You like to gaze at bull testicles? Where are they in relation to the playboy models?

Everyone likes their PlayBoy models to be frothing with testosterone... don't they?

Yeah I'm with reign.

You have to be Genetically Superior right. Take it to the max.

Let's go Reign let's do a 1,000 sit ups because we are men, no better we are manly man.

We are the men that can be hours in a GYM without being Gay.
We are the men who can take a kick in the balls and say that’s all you got?
We are the kind of men that make our own porn with chicks and stuff, non of that furry sh*t.
We are the can of men that can take the world with both hands and f*ck it deep and hard.
We are the can of men that like other men…in a non gay way or fuck it and like in a gay way because we are MEN!!!!

(I seriously lol’d when I typed all that and no I’m not gay ,not that is anything wrong with that but I really like girls)

what im trying to say is...
your only a real man if you eat bull testicles and play call of duty at the same freakin time.

@esc.
lmao dude!
no no no. im no manly man. just they should swing the whole dashboard thing to something to cater to the majority of the current users, who like manly games like gears.

“your only a real man if you eat bull testicles and play call of duty at the same freakin time”.

Seriously? wow.

All this time I thought being a man was: Taking responsibility of your acts, raising a family and look after it and never let them down (I could do a Rick Roll here but I won’t) do whatever it takes to protect your family and sustain it, guarantee your kids a bright future even if it means having 2 jobs and taking care of every person you care and love even if it kills you.

Thinking about it, gimme those bull testicles (Somewhere in a farm there is a Bull with self-stem problems).

omg its a fuckin joke man. i want the dashboard to be able to represent me, as a hardcore gamer.

*end*

Like the others have said...they show a blades-esque overlay when the guide button is pressed.

no they showed what happens when u push the cetner button, a box pops up in the center and lists your friends
players
inside xbox, etc etc.

similar to the current main blade. nothing about the other blades tho.

Lets hope the classic view is there. I dont want to use any sort of dumb avatars or prettier but less effeicent menus.

I hope they are both usable, then joystiq holds a poll when their both released so we can see which one everyone uses.

Maybe that will stop all the whining...

From what little we've seen of it I happen to like the new interface.

This Fall = Win for MS I believe. And probably Wii too.

Exactly. I like the new interface, too. It's sleek, it's clean, it's aesthetically appealing.

The old interface was cluttered and clunky, this one cleans it all up while keeping the functionality.

xbox 360 vista...

Wash your dirty mouth with soap boy.

sorry first thing i thought when i seen that pic,
doesnt vista have a feature like that?

I don't really like from what I've seen so far of the new UI.

Maybe it'll grow on me but the current UI is just fine IMO.

Honestly, I'm concerned because what about the themes we bought? Have they explained what's gonna happen to our purchased icons and themes with these new features? I certainly hope I didn't just waste my money buying a theme that won't be usable in a few months.

I dont get all the hate. Is it just that you hate change?
IMO the dashboard was in need of an overhaul. The blade system got stagnant. This new interface looks great. I like how everything ties together, i like the party system, etc
And if you dont like it, use the old one. But maybe if you give it a chance, you might surprise yourself and like it.
I applaud MS for this and look forward to seeing it in the Fall

I don't think you can use the old one, The new update is going to be mandatory.

I hope there's an option to keep the old dash if we want. I liked it fine and it just feels like home now ;)

As it looks, I don't like it; I'm also not a big fan of the blades either. I'm not sure what they could've done to make me like it better. I hope they allow us to change the background because I really don't like that silver.

I'll know more when I can mess with it, I might end up liking it; although, I still HATE the avatars!

Alright I'm hoping this gets delayed cause I don't know if I really want this I mean I have a cool Theme of a 67 Ford Mustang and I love my gamerpic.

So why should I have some bland background?
Why have Miis oh I mean Avatars?

Well at least we are getting are money's worth but what about My themes and Gamerpic I mean look at that ugly background all Gray damn, it just looks horrible.

They best to answer up to those question of whether we keep of themes and gamerpics.

I still hope this gets Delayed.

Can someone please post a screen cap of this new dashboard? I surfed through the press conference on G4 but never saw it. I'm dying to know what it's like!

Screenshot I took of the blade system here:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/Mach19/Picture2.jpg

looks close to phony's gamer id

so... all that money i spent on themes for the current blade menus.... ? Would MS do that to the customers? Offer a replacement theme for the new menus... or do we just lose because MS changed it and thats that?

New Dashboard: Unnecessary, not really *better*, not too big of a deal

New Avatars: Very Unnecessary, copycat and kiddie. Must be allowed to diable

There is nothing confusing about this. There never was.

Xbox 360 guide to offer blades, no solid explanation of how

Reader Comments (40)

Posted: Jul 14th 2008 8:47PM FernandoRocker said

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