The New Xbox Experience: What do you think?

It was nice while it lasted - 2 weeks later - and 2 months after the 1 year warranty ran out - I got the E74 message and had to send the box back to microcrap for a $50 charge.

I would say it's harder to see what's new. Before, all I had to do was go to the Marketplace blade and choose "spotlight" or "what's new" twice a week (Tuesday = new content day, Wednesday = new Arcade stuff day).

Now, I can't find much at all anymore. Luckily, I can go online to do my searching, but even that takes longer than before.

Also, navigation takes forever. Long wait times for market information, and I'm not allowed to download a demo until the featured demo and full-game price are loaded?! That's rediculous! It takes much longer than before to load. I even upgraded from 1MB DSL to 10MB Cable, and it takes the same amount of time, so it's definitely a system issue at MS.

I miss seeing the different pictures from my previously-downloaded themes when I switch menu items. And now there is a big sphere blocking the bottom portion of the beautiful artwork that managed to survive the transition.

The ONLY things I love about the new update are 1) the party mode and 2) the avatars (but only a little).

Party mode is nice because now we can have private chats with a group. No more playing Call of Duty 4 or BF: Bad company with 3 people and having to listen to the other nine people whining in the lobby/game.

Avatars are nice ONLY because it extends the awesomeness of gamertags. The idea of one user name for all games is extended, so you can have one character for all games. Now beef it up, MS, so it will look cool enough for me to use in a game like Rock Band. This could be very cool if every game allowed using external characters, and perhaps shed the cost of some games that feel they NEED character editors.

Oh, and the other cool feature that I always said should be implemented is controlling the scrolling text description in the market place using the right thumbstick.

It was always a bitch to watch a long description scroll, then suddenly stop and restart at the top because the stupid banner image was finished loading.

i would love it if the 360 automatically played dvd's like it did before, instead of making me click through a bunch of crap. if i put a dvd into my box, i obviously don't care about anything microsoft has to tell me for the next couple of hours.

I do not like it. It's much slower than the old blade version. It's uglier than the blade version. It's also harder to find things you are looking for like the above person said how to play a dvd. MS made the entire system more difficult to find and adjust things. It's a complete mess if you ask me, whenever I scroll through left or right in a certain area if I accidentally put to much pressure upwards I completly loose my place and have to find my way back to where ever it was. I want my blades back, far easier and simpler to understand. Surely they could have added the upgrades to the blade system and left the appearance be.

A great improvement and great look , but I could have done without the avatars truthfully.