Get NXE Now!

[JK Ferret]

I thought Finlay had a job along those lines as i've noticed that Finlay always seems to have info about stuff before hand.

Wish i was a beta tester.

What it is, is that he's the top man behind Xbox, in disguise

As for not letting on more than he does, well, something about his job being in jeopardy if he does blab, I reckon. Not a desirable situation in these times, that's for sure

[finlay666]

So why would 'e' in the last podcast by Major Nelson say, and I quote:

"I do want to be clear, we're calling this the 'Preview Program'. This is not a Beta. At this point the NXE is pretty much fully baked, and we love feedback, and if people give us suggestions, comments, criticisms, we collect that, look at it and consider that in the future."

Because you don't get all the features in the preview program, and just like he said it's pretty much fully baked, there are ones you cannot access just yet, can't say what but there are . The NXE is more than the firmware on your console, preview by definition means you don't get to see all of it.

There will still be updates before it goes live, so as it's not released still beta

I have had the chance to beta test stuff in private stages of testing, other employees have beta tested stuff like Halo 3 before it gets released

[BlackDwarf]

Ok. So, here's the important question. Can I have a job please?

[finlay666]

Ok. So, here's the important question. Can I have a job please?

I wouldn't ask me, I'm just an intern

[Pyrii]

A few weeks of not being able to use live, be no different than usual then, there's a few demos I want, but MS still insist on hurting their revenue stream by not letting me play demos so I can make an educated decision on the game.

One thing they need to do with the marketplace is let you "bookmark" downloads for silver members so you can easily see when they're available. Also handy if you're interested in something but don't want to download immediately. But I'm just ranting.

To be honest, I don't see too much to fuss over with the new dash other than being able to create an avatar NOW instead of in 3 weeks time. I'd wait for the disappointment =P

[Rob_B]

To be honest, I don't see too much to fuss over with the new dash other than being able to create an avatar NOW instead of in 3 weeks time. I'd wait for the disappointment =P

Umm installing games to the HDD? The single biggest reason I'm looking forward to the new dashboard! I could do without every other change as far as I can see.

I totally agree about the downloads, Mirrors Edge has been tempting me for days & I keep checking but have no idea when it'll be available. Some form of scheduling or even just the date in the demo details would be great!

[Pyrii]

Umm installing games to the HDD? The single biggest reason I'm looking forward to the new dashboard! I could do without every other change as far as I can see.

A great feature that is crippled and made completely useless by the fact that you need the disc in the drive still to play it. So any noise or convenience benefits go straight out the window.

[finlay666]

A great feature that is crippled and made completely useless by the fact that you need the disc in the drive still to play it. So any noise or convenience benefits go straight out the window.

So the mere fact that it's illegal to do it without because you are circumventing copyright protection?

Have you actually used it? If not I suggest you do before you start blindly slagging it off.

[Rob_B]

A great feature that is crippled and made completely useless by the fact that you need the disc in the drive still to play it. So any noise or convenience benefits go straight out the window.

You appear to be focusing on one small issue (which isn't even an issue for me)

It'll bring faster load times, the disc only spins up on first load to check then will spin down again so no, it's not crippled as it does exactly what it should do & I'm more than happy with how it will run.
It's no different to any other console or PC game which require the disc

[SmileyUK]

there is a video proving it makes the 360 quieter. Load time differences aren't massive though.

[finlay666]

there is a video proving it makes the 360 quieter. Load time differences aren't massive though.

It depends on the game, I have seen 5-10s improvement on some games, thats pretty massive in my book.

The noise alone is worth it.

[Pyrii]

So the mere fact that it's illegal to do it without because you are circumventing copyright protection?

Have you actually used it? If not I suggest you do before you start blindly slagging it off.

You assume my intentions are bad, I am also looking forward to this feature, and understand why they want the disc in the drive. The problem is, it defeats it's own purpose by doing so mostly. And that is for 2 reasons.

1. With XBLA games on your hard drive, the convenience is there for you to flick through you library and start any game without having to get up out of your chair. Having full games on your hard drive should hopefully offer the same benefit, but at the end of the day you still have to get out of your chair and find the game disc to play them. (I know, you're just lazy, but this point really makes me wonder what the point of the feature is). At the end of the day, there's no other way to make sure a game isn't installed on multiple systems, so we're stuck with it this way.

2. Noise. The main problem with the 360 is the fact it sounds like a jet engine with the game disc spun up. And nothing short of hacking the drive firmware will change that (Which I wouldn't suggest anyway). So the fact you have to have the disc in the drive negates this as well, as it needs to read the disc to start the game. My hope is they spin it up to verify the disc is in there and spin the drive back down again instantly.


Doesn't mean it won't be a handy feature, just the main reasons for using it can't really happen because there's currently no way to prevent abuse if they let people play without the disc. Hopefully they'll work on the serialisation for the next console. So that each copy has it's own unique identifier, stopping it from being installed on 2 machines at once. Although I thought they already did this. This should help load times for most games and also hopefully reduce noise if done right. So it's still worth using for games you regularly play. But it won't help impulse playing.

Anyway, this is just my speculative opinion, if I'm wrong, then good. I prefer to set my expectations low and have them exceeded =P

EDIT: I took 2 hours to write this reply and didn't spellcheck?

[Rob_B]

1. With XBLA games on your hard drive, the convenience is there for you to flick through you library and start any game without having to get up out of your chair. Having full games on your hard drive should hopefully offer the same benefit, but at the end of the day you still have to get out of your chair and find the game disc to play them.

2. Noise. The main problem with the 360 is the fact it sounds like a jet engine with the game disc spun up. And nothing short of hacking the drive firmware will change that (Which I wouldn't suggest anyway). So the fact you have to have the disc in the drive negates this as well, as it needs to read the disc to start the game. My hope is they spin it up to verify the disc is in there and spin the drive back down again instantly.

1. The point/benefit is to reduce load times (albeit by a small amount but still) & noise. So it hits all of it's targets, I don't recall MS ever saying they included this feature so you didn't have to have the disc in the drive? It'd be nice but it was never promised.

2. The disc spins up to verify then spins down which in turn reduces wear on the disc as well, I think you aren't quite clued up on what this feature does.

Hope this helps

[Stewart]

You assume my intentions are bad, I am also looking forward to this feature, and understand why they want the disc in the drive. The problem is, it defeats it's own purpose by doing so mostly. And that is for 2 reasons.

1. With XBLA games on your hard drive, the convenience is there for you to flick through you library and start any game without having to get up out of your chair. Having full games on your hard drive should hopefully offer the same benefit, but at the end of the day you still have to get out of your chair and find the game disc to play them. (I know, you're just lazy, but this point really makes me wonder what the point of the feature is). At the end of the day, there's no other way to make sure a game isn't installed on multiple systems, so we're stuck with it this way.

2. Noise. The main problem with the 360 is the fact it sounds like a jet engine with the game disc spun up. And nothing short of hacking the drive firmware will change that (Which I wouldn't suggest anyway). So the fact you have to have the disc in the drive negates this as well, as it needs to read the disc to start the game. My hope is they spin it up to verify the disc is in there and spin the drive back down again instantly.


Doesn't mean it won't be a handy feature, just the main reasons for using it can't really happen because there's currently no way to prevent abuse if they let people play without the disc. Hopefully they'll work on the serialisation for the next console. So that each copy has it's own unique identifier, stopping it from being installed on 2 machines at once. Although I thought they already did this. This should help load times for most games and also hopefully reduce noise if done right. So it's still worth using for games you regularly play. But it won't help impulse playing.

Anyway, this is just my speculative opinion, if I'm wrong, then good. I prefer to set my expectations low and have them exceeded =P

EDIT: I took 2 hours to write this reply and didn't spellcheck?

2 hours to write 3 and a bit paragraphs?! That slower than someone who is dead.

I agree though. No disc sounds great, but if you are playing GTA4 and fancy a game of Halo3, even with both games installed, you still have to get the GTA disc out, box it, get the Halo3 disc in, etc. So yeah, its a bit quieter, but nothing to get all that excited about.

[Rob_B]

So yeah, its a bit quieter, but nothing to get all that excited about.

BIT that's the understatement of the century, I'm used to the sound in games now but I really notice a difference when playing XBLA games with no disc spinning!

[finlay666]

You assume my intentions are bad, I am also looking forward to this feature, and understand why they want the disc in the drive. The problem is, it defeats it's own purpose by doing so mostly. And that is for 2 reasons.

So please explain how it fails at reducing console noise in game and reducing load times

1. With XBLA games on your hard drive, the convenience is there for you to flick through you library and start any game without having to get up out of your chair. Having full games on your hard drive should hopefully offer the same benefit, but at the end of the day you still have to get out of your chair and find the game disc to play them. (I know, you're just lazy, but this point really makes me wonder what the point of the feature is). At the end of the day, there's no other way to make sure a game isn't installed on multiple systems, so we're stuck with it this way.

The thing is that you CAN install on multiple systems, you should check your facts before you say things like this.

You seem to completely miss the point, and with games like the Portal addon being standalone and available on XBLA maybe you will stop complaining about stuff you have never used

2. Noise. The main problem with the 360 is the fact it sounds like a jet engine with the game disc spun up. And nothing short of hacking the drive firmware will change that (Which I wouldn't suggest anyway). So the fact you have to have the disc in the drive negates this as well, as it needs to read the disc to start the game. My hope is they spin it up to verify the disc is in there and spin the drive back down again instantly.

Again are you on it?

The console is practically silent, my pc makes more noise and it's great, the disc spins up when a disc is inserted and thats about it. I am using a Falcon 360 with a 120gb HDD which gives plenty of space for the games

Doesn't mean it won't be a handy feature, just the main reasons for using it can't really happen because there's currently no way to prevent abuse if they let people play without the disc. Hopefully they'll work on the serialisation for the next console. So that each copy has it's own unique identifier, stopping it from being installed on 2 machines at once. Although I thought they already did this. This should help load times for most games and also hopefully reduce noise if done right. So it's still worth using for games you regularly play. But it won't help impulse playing.

Name one console where you can play a full proper game (not arcade/downloaded ones for obvious reasons) WITHOUT the game in the drive. How the hell is this any different?

Anyway, this is just my speculative opinion, if I'm wrong, then good. I prefer to set my expectations low and have them exceeded =P

As I said use it before you start badmouthing something, otherwise you are just making speculative comments.

Stewart, saying it's a bit quieter is like saying Black is a bit darker than white. It's a decent bit quieter IMO on a newer 360, I have to think what the old ones were like.