News - Xbox Live summer update launches today

[HEXUS]

New features abound in today's big Xbox Live update.

Read more.

[Trash Man]

There is a very nice article on the update and some of the features that have not been mentioned in the update notes here.


EDIT:

It seems the update is now live

Just got disconnect from XBL and I'm now downloading an update.

[watercooled]

Just signed in to check for it myself and got it before I reached the dashboard. I'm hoping the thing about compressing installed games is true and I'm installing COD4 now to check. It does seem to be taking longer which is promising. I'll post when it's done...

[watercooled]

OK the install compression is NOT TRUE!! It was in the beta but it turns out MS would rather have us waste our money on a stupidly priced 120GB HDD instead of simply providing compression which costs nothing. Oh well, since I don't fancy paying real money for clothes of an avatar which has remained the same since day 1 or buying downloadable games which are cheaper in the shops preowned (and which you can trade back in when you're done) this update isn't of much interest to me. I suppose the ratings could be useful though...

[samcross]

Am I the only one that has had the "one touch" invite to party option since the release of NXE?

[Grey M@a]

OK the install compression is NOT TRUE!! It was in the beta but it turns out MS would rather have us waste our money on a stupidly priced 120GB HDD instead of simply providing compression which costs nothing. Oh well, since I don't fancy paying real money for clothes of an avatar which has remained the same since day 1 or buying downloadable games which are cheaper in the shops preowned (and which you can trade back in when you're done) this update isn't of much interest to me. I suppose the ratings could be useful though...

This is the exact reason why I think MS are going to have to raise their game and drop the 120GB HD and move onto 200 - 500GB HD's for their consoles. If you were to download the games instead of buy them, you would soon run out of space.

A few friends of mine argued that you could delete them and download them again later when you fancied a game. XBOX installs normally being 6gb+ would you want to wait over an hour just to get the game again to have a quick shot?

MS have to be planning something as even on the 120gb you download enough games and you will run out of space eventually. Will stick to boxed versions myself, I have just picked up 14 new and sealed 360 games from ebay for no more than £50, quite a few of them recent titles.

[watercooled]

Same here and I hope with the next console you can swap out the HDD yourself and use USB flash drives like on the PS3. They might throw up the DRM card but PS3 has managed it OK! And I'd also like the option of being able to back up saves, again like on the PS3. The price of 360 storage is plain pathetic which is why I still have the 20GB HDD and have no plans of changing.

[Grey M@a]

Same here and I hope with the next console you can swap out the HDD yourself and use USB flash drives like on the PS3. They might throw up the DRM card but PS3 has managed it OK! And I'd also like the option of being able to back up saves, again like on the PS3. The price of 360 storage is plain pathetic which is why I still have the 20GB HDD and have no plans of changing.

I was on the 60GB and I moved to the 120gb as I got a stupidly good deal through Game for one. Got my 60GB laying about in the xbox box to keep it save as I was tempted to get an arcade version and stick the 60GB on there. Might sell it yet though. Even on the 120gb you install the few games you play on a regular basis and I am down to 61GB left.

[Terbinator]

OK the install compression is NOT TRUE!! It was in the beta but it turns out MS would rather have us waste our money on a stupidly priced 120GB HDD instead of simply providing compression which costs nothing.

All My installation have gone down in size and it was said when it first came out it may not be true for all games. I installed my games during the 'preview' and it hasnt made me update to the full fat version so i guess it was final.

[watercooled]

I tried COD4 which stayed the same size. I'll try a few more to test - what did you use? Also like I said it was on the beta but AFAIK it isn't on the final.

[Terbinator]

So far Halo Wars, Ninja Gaiden 2 and CoD4

[watercooled]

OK so after a bit of research it turns out compression ratios aren't great for most games, which is why I didn't notice the difference for COD4, so all it does is makes the install take like 5 times as long to save a few hundred MB per game? Not exactly the half/quarter ratio compression rumoured is it?

I'm getting the before sizes from here BTW: http://www.stripesonfire.com/nsc/
SC: Double agent went from 6.8GB to 6.7GB.
FC2: From 4.5GB to 3.6GB (pretty good).
BF: Bad Company: From 6.5GB to 5.4GB (also pretty good!)
COD4 from 6.7GB to 6.5GB (and it took aaaages to complete!)

[Terbinator]

I think there was a 500MB difference for my Halo Wars installation ! Make sure that when you (everyone) is comparing the game installation size before and after rather than the game profile size on the hard drive

Also has anyone else noticed that installing Burnout: Paradise make minimal difference, if only in sound of the disc drive, to the load times? That game takes ages to load

Edit: Bad Company :O

[watercooled]

The compression is sort of what I expected as games generally don't compress well. It's just I read the should compress with awesome ratios but I can't really blame MS for that. There should be an option to not use compression though because of how long it takes on some games and makes minimal difference (COD4 for example). And yeah, I'm comparing installation size, not profile size - I nearly did make that mistake though .