The Lamer Gamer

Came across this last night.  I’m fairly certain that I’ve never seen this before, and I’ve had no luck looking it up.  It looks to be a small display/monitor icon.  First thought that popped into my head was that it indicated you could do some sort of screen sharing, but I couldn’t exactly figure how that would work.  I have to say that would be a nifty addition to the Xbox feature list.

As for other items related to the Fall Preview, the first update left my with an odd issue where the wireless controller would disconnect, and go to the spinning lights around the Guide button, only to reconnect a few seconds later, kind of annoying mid game.  This seems to be fixed as of an update Sunday night.

All in all, still pleased with the new features, wanna see more.

UPDATE: Well, turns out that it indicates a LIVE (not Xbox LIVE) enabled game on a PC.  Kind of anti-climactic.  Should have occurred to me since Dawn of War 2 isn’t out for Xbox.

I never get picked for these things but I signed up anway. Last night while playing Ghostbusters (still gotta post something on that) I get kicked from Xbox Live, and it says I need an update to continue.  So I proceed and it’s a 9 minute download, followed by a brief “I’m updating” wait, and BANG!

And without having changed the interface significantly there are a lot of updates.  Reading though the list we get enhancements to:

• Parties
• Account Management
• Avatars
• Netflix
• Video Display Options
• User Ratings
• Games on Demand
• UI Improvements
• Console Settings

What isn’t mentioned, but seems fairly obvious is that the Dashboard’s responsiveness is greatly improved, especially in-game.  From within Ghostbusters on Xbox LIVE, I’d get dropped from player lobby if I pulled up the Dashboard to check a player’s Gamercard.  Not anymore.  It’s still not silky smooth but it’s an improvement.

So to talk about the update items in specific.

Parties – I don’t really use them.  I have, but find myself playing solo, or with people I don’t know most of the time.  BUT, Netflix seems to support them now.  More on that later.

Account Management – Gold Veterancy is probably something that appeals to people that have had Gold, or plain old Xbox Live from the beginning, but I let my subscription lapse all the time.  Now the expiration notification is nice though, as at least it won’t be a surprise.  Added bits for invalid WLIDs and Account Recovery are in there, but I don’t have problems with either of them.

Avatars - Avatar Props are kind of amusing, as I really like the remote controlled Warthog that your avatar can drive around.  BUT.  The Avatar Marketplace isn’t something I’ll ever use.  Much as I want that little Warthog, I’m not paying for it.  It isn’t a game, it’s hardly something I’d ever see, and it isn’t worth 320 MS Points.  That’s nearly enough for a cheap game.  Get real.  The Avatar Awards thing is more my speed, winning unlockables for playing games adds a little extra life to them.

Netflix – FINALLY!  Browsing is where it’s at.  However, Search, is not available which is disappointing.  The party system is also available in Netflix, which I assume means you can sync up playback as was previously advertised, need to try that.  You are presented with the option to display or hide the titles of the videos you’re watching.  Passing on that one.  I’m keeping my viewing habits to myself.

Video Display Options – Some additions to customizing display detection (and audio).  I’ve got a pretty simple setup with an HDTV via HDMI, which worked fine before.  Since applying the update, audio has dropped out once or twice and I’ve had to restart the Xbox.

User Ratings – It’s pretty limited, but it’s nice to be able to get a feel for whether a game is really bad or good, before trying it out. 

Games on Demand – From the descriptions it  doesn’t sound like what I think it should be.  I was assuming it was some kind of subscription service on top of Live, but it only lists “Purchase” with a write up just like any XBLA game you’d download, so I dunno.

UI Improvements – Indie Games.  That’s what they call Xbox LIVE Community Games.  How is that UI related?  Launching games from the Achievement Browser, meh, why not.  Achievement Tracking  I think they mean the pane which shows you xxxx/xxxx Gamerscore and Achievements, along with # of games completed.  Doesn’t seem that interesting.  Neither is the in-game browser, I sort of liked being able to read the description without selecting them individually.  Now the blank voice messages warning is good, cause I was tired of having muted the mic and sending someone 18 seconds of dead air.

Console  Settings – They added time stamps to the saved games, that’s helpful if all I want to do is save the last one for some game I haven’t playing in 18 months.  Friends List sorting would be more interesting if I had more than 6 friends, who are never on-line.

All in all, looks like a pretty solid update, with quite a few new features that are actually making a difference.