The new Xbox 360 dashboard looks ridiculous..

[Tanthalos]

If they don't give people the option to choose which dashboard they use then I think that would be the biggest problem. Seeing there is no such thing as a definitive "good", "bad", "beautiful" or "ugly" due to the fact that all of those terms are personally subjective there is no point in discussing how good or bad the thing is.
To each their own, etc.

BUT if they force everyone to "upgrade" (hate that word especially when you are degrading the product by upgrading) that is completely unfair. Why is it unfair? Why do people have the right to complain?
Because they paid a lot of money for a product and when they originally purchased that product it was shown as looking one way which they agreed to when the purchase was made.
Imagine if you bought a car and one morning you walk out to find that the car company re-did the interior in hot pink crushed velvet without giving you a choice. Or the company that makes your dress shirts decides that it is mandatory to tie-die all the shirts in your closet without asking. Wouldn't you have the right to be upset?

 

[JaguarWong]

An almost infinite combination of personally chosen accesories vs a bunch of pictures drawn by someone else...

And you think you're getting less choice?

I'm sure there will be a 'face' with stubble so you can show the world how manly and hetrosexual you are.

EDIT: And another thing - you had no choice how the thing looked before - why does it matter that you might not again!?!

 

[Lord Krunk]

It's interesting, but a complete rip off of the Wii.

Don't make it mandatory, Microsoft.

 

[sunami88]

An almost infinite combination of personally chosen accesories vs a bunch of pictures drawn by someone else...

And you think you're getting less choice?

I'm sure there will be a 'face' with stubble so you can show the world how manly and hetrosexual you are.

EDIT: And another thing - you had no choice how the thing looked before - why does it matter that you might not again!?!

Dude you're taking this way too seriously. And I don't know what screens you were looking at, but "almost infinite" aren't the words I'd use. Especially considering those were, infact, all drawn up by someone else.

Also I thought the "stubble" comment was way uncalled for. C'mon man, it's a dashboard, and so far this isn't a poo flinging contest. We're all trying to discuss and you're getting all riled up. Breathe in... Breathe out...

 

[Lord Krunk]

Really get a scope of what matters,africa is still in poverty and the world is going downhill but in other news, oh no the skin looks different on your 360.

I think you'll be a bit happier to hear that a vigilante group attempted to pop off Robert Mugabe (Or however you spell it).
They failed, but at least someone's trying.
If he does get the chop, then poverty in Africa will start to decline.

I know it's irrelevant to the topic, but you gotta have HOPE, people.

 

[Ultrajoe]

Wow, we can get pissed over a dashboard?

Seeing as i use it enough to be my catchphrase; Grow a Pair

Add in a fancy graphic and it could be my business pair.

 

[LilMissEvil]

To be fair, I'll be annoyed if I have to scrap the Gamerpics I've paid for too.

It's nothing to do with being aggressive, or manly, or heterosexual or whatever. People like to have a choice. At the moment, you can choose to have a cutesy cat picture, or a geeky Transformers picture, or a blood spattered Gears of War picture. That's right, there's a choice. You can choose to reflect your individual style with your Gamerpic. That, and you can also use the camera to take your very own picture, so that if you really want, you can show all the people out there in Xbox Live Land what you really look like.

But, if they're going to make it so everyone has one of these cutesy little Mii things, it's going to take away a large portion of that choice.

Other than the Mii Lookey Likeys however, I do like the rest of it. Not sure if I like it more than the current dashboard, but I could certainly get used to it. Hopefully the new avatars will just be a choice, rather than a must have.

 

[JaguarWong]

Dude you're taking this way too seriously. And I don't know what screens you were looking at, but "almost infinite" aren't the words I'd use. Especially considering those were, infact, all drawn up by someone else.
Also I thought the "stubble" comment was way uncalled for. C'mon man, it's a dashboard, and so far this isn't a poo flinging contest. We're all trying to discuss and you're getting all riled up. Breathe in... Breathe out...

Okay - starting again.

This isn't the only website I visit - every single one this morning hasa million people whining about MS changing the way a menu looks.

New Portal, New Geometry Wars, Netflix partnership and RIDING BRUMACKS AND REAVERS all take second place to this pointless moaning.

If I was out of line in the way I addressed the topic here then I apologise but, in all honesty... I expect better from this forum.

PS - I said 'almost infinite COMBINATION' if one avatar is made from 9 sections and you have 3 options in each then you have nearly 20000 cominations (I think.....?)

 

[Shotaro]

frankly I think it looks better - the Xiis look ridiculous but it looks cleaner and far more modern than the current dashboard. Which frankly looks a little archaic compared to the Wii and PS3 main menus.

Given a choice I would take it - I just hope it isn't mandatory as some people seem to think their console is a representation of their penis (not referring to people on this board). The only thing that really annoys me is the $ I splashed out on themes will become redundant.

@ lil miss evil: good point well made, I suspect the avatar dudes will be just for the dashboard and the gamerpics will still exist in the friends lists etc or once again thats more $ down the drain.

 

[GloatingSwine]

If they don't give people the option to choose which dashboard they use then I think that would be the biggest problem. Seeing there is no such thing as a definitive "good", "bad", "beautiful" or "ugly" due to the fact that all of those terms are personally subjective there is no point in discussing how good or bad the thing is.
To each their own, etc?

Actually, in interface design, there is such a thing as "Good" and "Bad".

"Good" is intuitively arranged and easy to navigate to anywhere in the interface with the minimum number of steps. This new interface looks like it has at least the navigation covered, it looks like it's only a few steps to get to any given page within the system (Compare that to the Settings menu of your XMB, which is a good example of "bad" interface, about 20 items of which four or so display at once, and no intuitive order for them to be in. Usability nightmare).

I don't really rate the whole "Mii too" business though, for exactly the same reason I don't rate Miis themselves. You spend five minutes fiddling with it, laugh at your little charicatured self, and then forget about it forever because no games actually integrate it as anything other than a save icon.

Much more significant is the new ability to copy games to the HDD to speed up loading times. Already considering migrating to an Elite or grabbing a 120GB drive.

 

[oecumenix]

Other than the Mii Lookey Likeys however, I do like the rest of it. Not sure if I like it more than the current dashboard, but I could certainly get used to it. Hopefully the new avatars will just be a choice, rather than a must have.

I agree, I think most of the other changes will be great, just crossing my fingers they aren't overshadowed by the avatars.

 

[Mathew952]

I'm a bit worried about How fast it will be flipping through all that. But Would you rather have this, or have all of the new features crammed into the Current dash?

 

[Mathew952]

i have to ask what does it matter? wow, so you have a part of your xbox360 (that you don't have to use) that looks nice, and even if it is a rip, a bit different to the usual 'lets be all tough and pretend that those playing consoles are manly men'.

Really get a scope of what matters,africa is still in poverty and the world is going downhill but in other news, oh no the skin looks different on your 360.

Why is that relevant? From now on, everytime you say anything remotely negative, I will respond by reminding you of a tradgedy.
"Hey Joe, This burger is a little burnt"
"SCREW YOU, people around the world are starving!"
We're out of ketchup. And polar bears are dying.

Were on the site for a gaming mag, what did you expect?

 

[J'aen]

Will everyone stop saying it looks nice like that's a scientific fact? Whether something looks good or not is a matter of opinion, and in my opinion the avatars can fuck right off. Dashboard itself is acceptable, if a little plain.

 

[Virgil]

I don't particularly care for the avatars, but other than that it seems like it will be a nice upgrade for usability. It's become pretty obvious to me over the past year that the current Dashboard interface is no longer capable of handling all of the 'stuff' that is now on the Xbox. The new interface seems to be borrowing a lot of the overall details from the most recent Media Center, which is generally very well done. I'd really like to see it in motion before I make any real judgements though.

On the other hand, the examples are not very 'pretty', but I'm really hoping that the new design will allow much greater customization than the existing one. The "themes" on the current Xbox 360 are ugly at best, and the worst of them make sections of the Dashboard almost completely unusable. Years later, I'm still using the default dashboard instead of any of the themes.

I do prefer the existing gamerpics over 3D cartoon people though - I just think that the still image can communicate more. But I know my fiancé would disagree with me, and I'm sure plenty of others would too.

 

[GloatingSwine]

On the other hand, the examples are not very 'pretty', but I'm really hoping that the new design will allow much greater customization than the existing one. The "themes" on the current Xbox 360 are ugly at best, and the worst of them make sections of the Dashboard almost completely unusable. Years later, I'm still using the default dashboard instead of any of the themes.

Themes are highly variable in quality. Some are very good, some are woeful unusable drek.

The new dashboard looks like it has much more room for themes though, that grey background could easily be replaced by a wallpaper image, and since the items in the menus are images rather than text they won't be as easily obscured by the background.

 

[Trogd0r]

It will be mandatory, the new dashboard I mean, and I can't wait.
Avatars will be optional though, but microsoft will "encourage" you to make one.

 

[brabz]

My complaint is the amount of empty space on the screen in the demo. You have an essentially idiot-proof interface(though I would've argued that for the blade setup), but there's so much empty gray/silver space, it looks funky.

Overall, I'm excited about the new updates(Netflix and the LIVE Arcade additions in particular), but not over the moon about the general look so far.

 

[Knight Templar]

Yesh the 360 fanboys will call this out for riping off the Wii, I guess apart from user interface -92 I can deal with it.

 

[Logan Westbrook]

Does anyone else think this looks a little bit like Apple's OS X?

EDIT: Or iTunes even.