Xbox Live Fall 2011 Dashboard Out Now - 12/06/11.

Don't have a Kinect so can't try those features out, but I'm actually liking the update for the most part (I wasn't a fan of it when it was first announced). Only a few minor complaints. I don't like the home tab how the "play game in your disc" square is so small.

That, and the "my games" section feels a tad out of place, but maybe that's just me. speaking of, probably the only thing I genuinely dislike is on the my games tab, instead of sorting your arcade games, installed 360 games, indie games, etc, it just lumps them all together.
 
I don't like how there is no "game library" like before I'd scroll up and down to see all my xbla games & what not. Now, I gotta scroll by each game to the side which takes alot more time considering I've got over 250+ items. Also, before I could check my account and it would show me how many Microsoft points I had left but don't see that anymore.

Overall, I like it and you can preview the beta on up to 3 of your 360's
 
I've never had a problem with any of the dash updates. mind you the blades was the most efficient dash, but i understand why they changed. This one though takes the cake on sucktng though. I can do anything but easily access a list of my games. It is so catered to advertisements of random junk and little to do with my actual game library.

What i want is a quick loading list of my games, text would be best. but no, i have to look at box art of only 5 games at a time. what the fuck where they thinking?
 
Yeah, kind of seems like a cluster f#%k of things just piled up here and there, some separate. I too want to get to my games (library) quickly and load fast but doesn't seem possible yet. Seems more like a social dashboard and it is very detailed for the most part but not detailed for the things I need and want it to be the most.

I don't care how many friends are online playing a certain game, much less how many of them played it recently. It's an okay update, guess I'll mess with it some more and try to get adjusted to it.
 
[quote name='DestroVega']YouTube isn't on this yet?[/QUOTE]
I've found this update to be quite disappointing as well. Unless they want us to test out their advertisements, there's not much for us to test. There's no premium channels like Showtime and all that. There's no YouTube. This is kind of a pointless beta if you ask me. We get to test the new layout? Neeto. Too bad the app marketplace is a ghost town...
 
Vote up and comment on my feedback regarding the shitty crap they did with the "My Games" section

https://connect.microsoft.com/XboxLIVEUpdate/feedback/details/701362/better-my-games-filters

...and if you don't like the order of the sections, here is my feedback for that

https://connect.microsoft.com/XboxLIVEUpdate/feedback/details/701369/reorder-sections

EDIT:
[quote name='intoxicated662']Also, before I could check my account and it would show me how many Microsoft points I had left but don't see that anymore.[/QUOTE]

Settings -> Account -> Add Microsoft Points

EDIT 2:
heres another to vote up/comment on (subject is bing search results)

https://connect.microsoft.com/XboxL...g-search-has-bad-results-for-certain-searches

EDIT 3:
and yet another regarding the lack of "tv hub" but existence of a setting for it.

https://connect.microsoft.com/XboxLIVEUpdate/feedback/details/701407/where-is-the-tv-hub
^ignore this now, I got chewed out for making a duplicate post on the topic.

And again fellow CAGs, please vote on these. The problems wont get fixed if Microsoft doesn't think people care.
 
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I agree with many of the criticisms and voted a few of yours up, EB. I don't have a problem with the overall look but it's just clumsier to find everything, especially your games list.

Also, how exactly do the beacons work and why do they limit you to just 3? Once you set a beacon does it let your friends know about it at all or only when they enter the game you set the beacon on? I wish it would give some sort of notification next to your friend icon or else it's just going to work by chance. I thought this would be great to get some co-op done on dead XBLA games that friends might feel the same way about but that isn't going to happen with only 3 beacons allowed and no notification.
 
I also agree, the window that shows your current game to play can't be that small, needs to be the big window in the middle.
 
I did just figure out some better sorting options on the game library tab. Instead of just looking at that long line of all your games you can click the "show" button at the top for actually more options than we previously had like "recently played" and "recently downloaded". It will then show your entire library in that order rather than even just a few games.
 
[quote name='Fearia']Is it possible to see when a friend was last online anymore? It's not showing for me.[/QUOTE]

You click on the friends avatar -> press right -> click on Friend Options

or

press guide button -> friends -> click on friend you want to know when was last online
 
Are the downloads going really slow for anyone else? Netflix, Hulu+ and other video services aren't even under the Video section but instead under Apps. Also, having to download then install these apps is a pain and time consuming. Hopefully they'll fix this and speed up the process in the final version release.
 
[quote name='intoxicated662']Also, having to download then install these apps is a pain and time consuming.[/QUOTE]

Uh, you had to do this before the update too you know.
 
[quote name='Nogib']Uh, you had to do this before the update too you know.[/QUOTE]

I had to redownload Netflix after the update.

This new interface is so clunky and more time consuming to use, IMHO. Not liking it at all really. It looks cleaner, but navigating through is more of a hassle than before.
 
[quote name='JStryke']Don't have a Kinect so can't try those features out, but I'm actually liking the update for the most part (I wasn't a fan of it when it was first announced). Only a few minor complaints. I don't like the home tab how the "play game in your disc" square is so small.

That, and the "my games" section feels a tad out of place, but maybe that's just me. speaking of, probably the only thing I genuinely dislike is on the my games tab, instead of sorting your arcade games, installed 360 games, indie games, etc, it just lumps them all together.[/QUOTE]
Click on the sort button to sort them by type (XBLA, Indie Games, Demos, and Kinect games), though it would be nice to have some more sorting options and even customization options.
[quote name='thrustbucket']bing search is useless without it searching netflix too[/QUOTE]
That's mentioned as a known issue on the Connect site, so it'll probably be fixed soon.
 
I like the more visual style of the game library and it does seem to load a bit quicker but the fact that ads are now front and center and seemingly EVERYWHERE really bugs me.

I feel like this interface could be great if we were allowed to customize what appeared on that first splash screen with what we use the most..and the fact that playing the game off the disc isn't front and center is ridiculous to me. I bought this thing to play games and certainly enjoy its other features but it feels like Microsoft is really cramming all the ads and their zune service down our throats with this update. If I could have the cloud saving and opt out of everything else, I'd be happy.

I also don't like how the leaderboards for games are so buried in menus now. I realize not many people care or look at them probably but I always thought it was cool to see if I still had the highest pac-man score from the dash..on some leaderboards that I have a lot of friends that play and I'm lower than 15th I'm not even able to scroll far enough down to see myself anymore!

Plus for some reason I couldnt use Netflix last night, it wouldnt download at all. I'm sure that'll be fixed very soon and I realize it's a pre release beta but it still feels clunky!
 
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I can't seem to find MSNBC the way it was under Video before. Seems like a hassle to browse and go through various clicks to just get to what I wanna. If you disliked ADS before, you're going to hate this dashboard update by the way. Oh yeah, in the Game Library you can hit SHOW and choose Indie Games, Arcade Games, but there is no option for (xbox) 360 Games or other things like Halo Waypoint..which is considered an xbox 360 game. Lots of work needs to be done. "recently reduced" only shows October's sales, not previous months so if you wanted to get a deal from previous months you wouldn't be able to see it unless you know exactly what you are looking for and you'd have to find it yourself in the game marketplace.........or use Bing search haha
 
Exactly, way too many ads. The interface is 80% ads/20% user stuff. Not cool when you're paying for a gaming service. Why are there even ads for cars on a gaming console? Kinda stupid.
 
[quote name='praxus07']Exactly, way too many ads. The interface is 80% ads/20% user stuff. Not cool when you're paying for a gaming service. Why are there even ads for cars on a gaming console? Kinda stupid.[/QUOTE]


This. I hope I can get used to it, because my initial impression is that it sucks. Instead of hanging on on the dash, tooling around, I can see me just getting right to the games.
 
Whats more shocking to me than all the Ads is that so many people are actually Surprised that there would be more ads.
More Space will always equal more ads.
Personally I could care less. If I have to watch an ad before playing a game, then I'll complain (which may happen some day). Until then I'm perfectly capable of finding my way around them.
 
The update killed one of my two systems that's running it. It simply can't stay online any more, and it won't reconnect after dropping the connection. So to me, it's like a virus. Can't wait for them to get the kinks worked out so I can use the console again...
 
I actually like it very much. Takes some getting used to and I don't think there are more ads per se but much more harder to ignore since they are tiles with everything else.

I do agree under the games heading, the biggest middle tile should be your game and not an ad.
 
hmmm maybe the update isnt working for me because i signed up with my old console and now use my gears console. I dont have my profile on the old 20gb hard drive so i cant use it on the old one. Oh well. -_-
 
[quote name='The 7th Number']hmmm maybe the update isnt working for me because i signed up with my old console and now use my gears console. I dont have my profile on the old 20gb hard drive so i cant use it on the old one. Oh well. -_-[/QUOTE]
You can have up to three systems in the beta by just loading up the app on your other console with the same gamertag.

Edit: I noticed when I tried to see if any of my NXE themes had full-screen art that it applies a filter over the artwork so obscure the bottom half for use with the NXE dashboard.
 
Here's another gripe......My son wanted to play kinect fun labs and it seriously took me 5 to 10 minutes to find it. They buried everything. It's a minor gripe, but still.

Another gripe.....to me, the sense of community is gone. The friends list is, to me, tucked away where before it was a couple clicks and you saw what your friends were up to.
 
[quote name='FriskyTanuki']You can have up to three systems in the beta by just loading up the app on your other console with the same gamertag.

Edit: I noticed when I tried to see if any of my NXE themes had full-screen art that it applies a filter over the artwork so obscure the bottom half for use with the NXE dashboard.[/QUOTE]

How do you load up the app, and where do you get it? All ive done so far is sign up, and log into connect and see that im in. I havent done anything since.
 
[quote name='The 7th Number']How do you load up the app, and where do you get it? All ive done so far is sign up, and log into connect and see that im in. I havent done anything since.[/QUOTE]
Then you're not technically in since you never gave MS any details as to what consoles you want to use in the beta. There should be an article on Connect about registering your console that will walk you through the steps to get your code to officially get into the beta.
 
[quote name='FriskyTanuki']Then you're not technically in since you never gave MS any details as to what consoles you want to use in the beta. There should be an article on Connect about registering your console that will walk you through the steps to get your code to officially get into the beta.[/QUOTE]

Thanks i just registered my console. I didnt know we had to do that since all the previews in the past just updated automatically, at least i thought they did.
 
[quote name='The 7th Number']Thanks i just registered my console. I didnt know we had to do that since all the previews in the past just updated automatically, at least i thought they did.[/QUOTE]
You had to include your console info upfront before.
 
I like the design of everything, but I do not like the actual layout. I wish I could customize the dashboard so my apps (or atleast Netflix) were closer to the games tab.
 
I like that they actually let you see what games your friends are playing, though I still want a better way to see who owns and/or has recently played the games I have and native time-tracking features to really make it so that we don't have to use third-parties to track that kind of information.
 
[quote name='gubmccargen']I did just figure out some better sorting options on the game library tab. Instead of just looking at that long line of all your games you can click the "show" button at the top for actually more options than we previously had like "recently played" and "recently downloaded". It will then show your entire library in that order rather than even just a few games.[/QUOTE]

[quote name='FriskyTanuki']Click on the sort button to sort them by type (XBLA, Indie Games, Demos, and Kinect games)[/QUOTE]

Yes, but the problem is that there is no (good) differentiation between trial and full games when it comes to sorting. In other words, if you are like me and have 620 games installed (100 being paid for full games), it is near impossible to find the games you own in the mess no matter what filter you pick.

[quote name='m3talst0rm']I don't like the fact that the "games" section is after the "video" section.[/QUOTE]

Please refer to my previous post and vote up the associated link.

[quote name='DestroVega']HD DVD under video apps. Physical things turned into "apps". I'm getting a lil old.[/QUOTE]

I thought the same thing at first, then I realised that its at least more available than it used to be. It may be grouped as an "App" but at least its not at the end of a section this time.
 
[quote name='EarthBoundX5']Yes, but the problem is that there is no (good) differentiation between trial and full games when it comes to sorting. In other words, if you are like me and have 620 games installed (100 being paid for full games), it is near impossible to find the games you own in the mess no matter what filter you pick.[/QUOTE]
Which is why I said that I wanted more sorting options or customization options if they're not interested in offering it themselves. It was the same way before on the previous dash, so I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't get fixed.
 
Where do you access the option to cloud save? I'm trying to get my profile on the cloud but I haven't found any options for it.

EDIT: NVM I found it...doesn't look like you can save profiles to the cloud...which thinking about it, guess it makes sense.
 
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My friend's DVD drive stopped working on his 360S after this latest update. Microsoft told him it wasn't an update issue, but I'm not entirely convinced that it's just coincidence. The 360S isn't that old, he's not hard on it as he installs all games and never uses it for DVD playback. Crummy.
 
Anyone having issues staying connected to live with the updated dash? Games seems to freeze more and I am dropping connections to Live multiple times per day.
 
[quote name='WhipSmartBanky']My friend's DVD drive stopped working on his 360S after this latest update. Microsoft told him it wasn't an update issue, but I'm not entirely convinced that it's just coincidence. The 360S isn't that old, he's not hard on it as he installs all games and never uses it for DVD playback. Crummy.[/QUOTE]

Not complete the same situation. But my wife put in Civilization Rev to play while I was at work the same day as I updated the console. It played for around 4 minutes then, I guess she heard the disc start rattling around in the xbox and what she describes as a grinding noise. She then shut down the console and couldn't open the tray. I guess after a number of tries got it opened and the disc has a nice ring etched around it.

Showed it to me when I got home and told me "my" xbox ruined her favorite game. I was nervous and did not want to ruin another game decided to throw my beta reach copy from the last update in the drive to see what happens and it loaded up just fine. A little more reading the disc noises than I remembered though. Haven't really played anything since. Can't say it was or was not the update, possibly just a mere coincidence.
 
[quote name='ImLuhkee']Not complete the same situation. But my wife put in Civilization Rev to play while I was at work the same day as I updated the console. It played for around 4 minutes then, I guess she heard the disc start rattling around in the xbox and what she describes as a grinding noise. She then shut down the console and couldn't open the tray. I guess after a number of tries got it opened and the disc has a nice ring etched around it.

Showed it to me when I got home and told me "my" xbox ruined her favorite game. I was nervous and did not want to ruin another game decided to throw my beta reach copy from the last update in the drive to see what happens and it loaded up just fine. A little more reading the disc noises than I remembered though. Haven't really played anything since. Can't say it was or was not the update, possibly just a mere coincidence.[/QUOTE]

That happens when the disc is not loaded/seated properly or if someone bumped into the Xbox. I always make sure discs are fully seated in the appropriate position before I close the disc tray.

I am by no means blaming your wife but it sounds fishy.
 
[quote name='kklems']Anyone having issues staying connected to live with the updated dash? Games seems to freeze more and I am dropping connections to Live multiple times per day.[/QUOTE]
You are not the only one. It has frozen multiple times while playing Skyrim. Thankfully I had a save or an autosave before it froze each time
 
[quote name='LinkinPrime']Where do you access the option to cloud save? I'm trying to get my profile on the cloud but I haven't found any options for it.

EDIT: NVM I found it...doesn't look like you can save profiles to the cloud...which thinking about it, guess it makes sense.[/QUOTE]

You have to enable cloud saving? How? Also I thought having your profile accessible from the cloud was pretty much the whole point. At least I don't understand how Savin games to the cloud is useful if we then can't log in as ourselves on another 360. ???
 
Cloud Storage can be turned on from:

System Settings > Storage > Cloud Saved Games

It acts like a new storage drive option to choose from when you're asked to pick a drive to save/load from, though MS has provided no documentation about the details of the service. I'd prefer to be able to set games to save to the cloud and my hard drive at the same time, but I don't see a way to do that nor do I have the interest to do that manually.
 
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