While Microsoft Australia's PR Agency have sent us a Press Release suggesting the New Xbox Experience is already here, we're waiting for the download option to kick off when it turns November 19 Northern Hemisphere side, which is still really only hours away.

The free update will apparently start automatically, transforming some "25 million Xbox 360 consoles sold worldwide" (by the end of November, that is) into fully updated new machines.

"Xbox 360 is getting a whole new look," said Andrew Jenkins, Xbox 360 Product Marketing Manager for games and LIVE. "From today Xbox owners are able to download a new user interface for their consoles, effectively updating their Xbox through Xbox LIVE. Xbox 360 now boasts a more user-friendly look and allows users to create online parties, chat with friends, share pictures, create avatars of themselves and much more," added Jenkins.

I have my machine on right now, so as soon as the update is available, we'll let you know.

How far away is it now?

I think it'll be online 8pm or something?

Both my friends who have 360's both have them at Microsoft being repaired. One of them has red ringed for the 4th time since he bought it last year, and the other is the 2nd time.

Thanks for the news Lynx, my 360 is at home and working, fyi (I x-clamped that motherf***er).

We got an XBox a few weeks ago and then lost the receipt :(

But then we got a free arcade edition with a TV so hopefully that receipt will be acceptable should the thing break.

I'm looking forward to this new interface thing.

hit up domino for free games!

9/10 people recommend you do.

Expect a pm later tonight.

d0mino - I'll get it on some GoW action as soon as I stop playing CoD :P

I just got the RROD, el oh el.

Anyone confirm what time it is?

after seeing the abomination of a user interface in that ausgamers interview video I'm never connecting my xbox to live ever again. I don't play online anyway and the new interface looks s***.

As far as I'm aware, you're not forced to update to it, even if you do want to go online. At least not yet anyway.

I don't know why you wouldn't want to though. IMO it looks worlds better than the current UI and it performs better as well.

yeah steve, and wet, apologies for the gears invite spam, there is a button in the matchmaking that says 'invite all' and i thought it was going to just invite everyone who is online playing gears, but it invites EVERYONE. and then i accidently hit it a second time.

but nonetheless, you should play with me and raisty cause we are awesome.
and wet you really should get xbl gold + gears2.

and i am very much looking forward to the new UI, and anyone that poo poos it on looks alone is an idiot. if its more intuitive its a win.



last edited by d0mino at 19:21:04 19/Nov/08

wet you really should get xbl gold + gears2

well I hear you're a man in a position to obtain such things for free :P

nah i dont get my xbl gold for free :'(

anyhoo, here is a pretty funny quote from kotaku, (apparently NXE is hitting at 2am in USA)

If you're up (or are staying up) for it, and don't live on the West Coast of the USA, here's a chart showing just when 2am Pacific Time is for you. If that time is very late/very early for you, and your significant other asks why you're up, whatever you do, don't tell them it's for a major firmware update for a home video game console.

http://kotaku.com/5092697/countdown-to-the-new-xbox-experience

last edited by d0mino at 19:35:47 19/Nov/08

Anyone been able to update yet? Doesn't seem to be doing anything for me.

BTW I'm pretty sure I read something from Microsoft saying that the update is compulsory.

I really dont get gears of war, is it a game you should really be playing in co op modE?

So how much you wanna sell it to me for? (GOW2)

Gears of War is fun.

gears of war is like a blockbuster sci fi alien exploding big budget b-grade film, that you play, while the main character says stuff like 'one s***load? more like 10 s***loads'.

its stupidly awesome.

Le, it's a game I think should ONLY be played co-operatively.

Also, that update is meant to kick in at 9pm according to that chart

last edited by Steve Farrelly at 20:12:55 19/Nov/08

Brisbane Wed 20:00 ?


last edited by d0mino at 20:22:59 19/Nov/08

Steve Farrelly

Location: Sydney, New South Wales

gears of war 2 is fun until you climb inside a giant worm and have to play timing puzzles for half an hour.

Yeah stinky, well if anyone wants to swap gears of war 2 I'm up for it ... dont think I'll be finishing it. Wouldnt mind a swap for Fallout 3.

I'm in Amsterdam though so maybe better to ebay it?

oh and sorry for the derail, heres hoping they add some better music player to the xbox that allows fast forwarding of songs

last edited by Le Infidel at 20:37:10 19/Nov/08

If anyone wants to buy an arcade edition (brand new unopened) pm me.

9 more minutes!

Brisbane, Qld.

5 more mins! Oh yay!

go time? everyone must be upgrading

I dont see anything to download? I'm calling bs.

Still says 2 days till new xbox experience.

I think Dan has nabbed it - is it automatic? Anyone grabbed it yet?

Check your connection to XBL apparently it's worked for others.

nothing happenin for me.

Nothing for me :(

ahh there we go, she's kicked off now. It had signed me out of xbox live.

Yep, I just booted up, signed in and it said an update was available and i'd need it to get online.

Process was pretty painless, I reckon half the file download size was that intro movie.

nb: The account I did sign in under was one I have registered with a US address (for region content). So if people with Australian accounts aren't getting it, maybe that's why?

Ahh she's away now.

Just updated mine. Seems ok, nothing special. I assume more skins etc will be released for it?

working now. did a connection test.

All done! And I like it, pretty good and fast!

I didn't get started until I tried to load up a new game

has the media player been updated at all?

A very brief look would indicate no.

downloaded it, new party system is great. needs more themes, night theme is the only one thats half decent.

i want to use the night theme for the friends list but have my gears wallpaper, anyone know if you can do that?

urgh.. NXE. it's as awful as what i thought it'd be...

but i do like the blades menu you get to pop up.. shame it just wasn't bigger (like the whole screen)


i think it'd be even better if you could choose if you wanted cover flow or blades... it looks more like friggen itunes/random apple product now..

It's awesome I don't have to wait for 2 minutes while all my arcade games load up.

Yeah, I really like it, its so much faster and more responsive than the old interface. I'm actually quite suprised that considering how heavy it is on the eye candy, its so snappy. I also seem to be the only person on my friends list who made a crazy nonsense avatar (billy idol leather vest, skeleton makeup, mutton chops and a monocle), everyone seems to have made very normal looking avatars, thats a bit disappointing :(

I think the only thing I really found that annoyed me is how when you come into the dash, it defaults to that "Spotlight" channel, I'd rather it default to the "My Xbox channel", just because that'd closer mimic what the old dash did, and thats more often than not where I'm going to be heading when I boot up my 360.

i think the avatars are really good fun, i reckon they have the capacity to be far superior to the nintendos miis even though you don't have the ability to do things like move your nose higher or lower. it will kick ass when third parties add more clothes and models from the games.

also i think they have trumped ps3's home, i reckon NXE has all you're really going to want or need as far as an avatar and the party system. the second life roaming space is unnescascery.

but it desperately needs more content. i really want my avatar to be holding a bloody lancer. and i want to more options on the 3d party system backgrounds. the xbox one is pretty lame, but the night and day ones are alright.

http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/WetWired/avatarpic-l.png
http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/WetWired/avatar-body.png

last edited by WetWired at 11:03:22 20/Nov/08

http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/d0mino360/avatar-body.png

I tried loading a few games to the hdd.. Quite snappy, fifa and gta all run much better!

Quite a big improvement over last plus cool looks and all.

Hope there will be more option in the future on dressing-up your avatars with XBox-specific related characters ( Halo or Gears and others... ).

great time for my 360 to rrod too =( I blame the NXE cause it was fine before that

So what causes the RROD?

Are the new models also susceptable to the problem?

overheating,

it should be ok if its in a well ventilated room/spot in your tv cabinent.

even if it does RROD they are really quick with turn around, i got mine back in 7 days.

hehe mine is a release 360, it's done so well to last this long

even if it does RROD they are really quick with turn around, i got mine back in 7 days.

I got mine in about 5-6 days if I remember correctly. Took longer because my local post office wasn't open on Saturdays :(

A friend of mine though just RROD'd... he's been waiting 2 weeks now and they've told him it might be up to 5 weeks...

http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/TwistedAU/avatar-body.png

last edited by Twisted at 22:12:58 24/Nov/08

Do you send it away or take it somewhere?

I just flattened the box on the weekend and it's in the bin.

http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/Khelzor/avatar-body.png

I want khels avatar to handf*** me.

Fear my default avatar.

Whoops like like a Bodach that only Odd Thomas can see.

I want khels avatar to handf*** me.

Thats the plan, why do you think hes wearing gloves?

That does sound uncomfortable though.

Well ffs just sat down for some GH action followed by Entourage S4 and I get RRoD. f***, it's 6 weeks old :(

The thing wasn't even hot as it hadn't been on for hours and it died straight on start-up.

So I don't think it was heat related......

mine RRoDed about a week after the new dashboard update, I wonder if it's a coincidence?

this is the 2nd time now, it was sent away and fixed once before, it's nearly 2.5 years old, still under warranty though

I'd lost the receipt pretty well straight away, so I was even more pissed.

But I filled out the online service request and put in the serial number and it popped up that it's under warranty, phew. Being the new 60gig version I'd hope so, even without the receipt as evidence.

But I do love the XBox so I can't stay mad at it for too long.

yeah the serial number for the console contains the date of it's manufacture so they can tell quickly if it's still under warranty.

I would be pissed about mine, as first my drums for guitar hero died after 2 days use and had to be sent back, I got them back a week later and my xbox RRoDed. Luckily I have another 360 I got in a mobile phone plan though so at least I can still play.

Luckily I have another 360 I got in a mobile phone plan though so at least I can still play.

Yeah, I have another one from a TV purchase. Was going to sell it on E-Bay but haven't got around to it. Which is lucky as I may crack it open (it's still unopened in the box) to get me through Christmas.

How long does the repair take from when you send it away?

I've had 2 go RRoD on me so far, had it a year. 1st one went 5 days after buying it so that went back to the store for a DOA replacement, next one took 6 months to go and that took 2 weeks to send and get back. I haven't done the new dashboard update yet, thinking about not doing it until after xmas now just incase. Kids would go nuts if the xbox dies before christmas, I think santa is bringing a couple of new games.

How long does the repair take from when you send it away?

Last time it was about a week and a half from when I sent it away to getting it back in the mail. Dunno about this time though, as I get the feeling leading up to xmas is their busiest time.

I had a bit of a gut feeling that it would go sooner rather than later, I thinks that's why I hung on to the Arcade edition I got with the TV.

It's a pain that it has to be sent away, I only chucked the box last weekend :( I guess I can just open the Aracde and send it back in that box instead.

Just the inconvience of it all is most frustrating, especially when it's only 6 weeks old and Santa is bringing the Guitar Hero World Tour for XMas.

On a slightly different note I can't believe how addictive GH is. I downloaded the demo over the weekend. Those crazy Asians in Timezone were onto something.

oh well as soon as I say that it turns up, it arrived back today (I sent it last monday), got yet another free month of xbox live gold :/

Took them about a week to send back mine. I was hoping they'd replace it with the newer model and not fix it but oh well.

3rd time lucky.

yeah I was hoping they'd replace mine too, but it's the same old one