5 Ways the New Xbox Experience Will Change Your Game

On November 19, Microsoft will unleash its New Xbox Experience (NXE), heralding the next step in the company's plot to take over the world the living room. Much has already been said about the new multimedia features contained in the update: movie rentals through Netflix, cute player avatars, and photo-sharing parties. That additional stuff is all wonderful, but most of us still use our Xbox 360 to play games. Microsoft has kept our interests in mind, and the company has made sure that the new update improves the core gaming experience as much as possible. Here are the top 5 ways that the New Xbox Experience will likely change your game.

1) Quietude
It is difficult to impress upon our non-gamer friends just how noisy the Xbox 360 is. Like one of those computers from the 1950s that took up an entire warehouse, the Xbox 360 whirrs and vibrates as it churns out those sweet hi-def graphics. Hardly the svelte, 21st century consumer product that other companies have managed to put out. The Xbox Experience changes all of that by allowing owners to stream games directly from the hard drive, reducing noise considerably. Some independent tests have the noise reduction around 50%, bringing it more in line with a product you would actually want to have in your home, rather than in the basement of the Pentagon. Installs take about 10 minutes, and range from 7 – 9 GB in size. A 60 gigabyte hard drive is strongly recommended for those who plan to make use of this new feature.

2) Load times
Another nice side effect of full game installs is the reduction of load times. These haven’t been too much of a problem so far on the Xbox 360, but they do occasionally detract from the immersion of the game world, especially in free-roaming titles. Now, games will not only boot faster, but load times will be almost completely eliminated.

3) Multi-Disk Games Requiring Install
This is either a positive or a negative feature, depending on where you stand. However, most Xbox fans recognize that the decision to offer the console sans hard drive has limited the freedom of game developers when it comes to creating detailed, complex worlds. The DVD format supported by the 360 currently stores about 9 GB of data. This is plenty of room for games like GTA IV and Fable II, which already offer amazing amounts of detail and freedom. But what about GTA V and Fable III? What if Kojima finally decides to bring Metal Gear Solid 4 to the Xbox 360? Developers will eventually need more space, and a mandatory install to the hard drive solves this issue. The only problem is that these games may require a hard drive in order to be played. When that day comes, it shouldn’t be too hard on consumers’ wallets: Microsoft is currently offering the 60 GB hard drive, a headset, and 3 months of live for $99.

4) Community Games
As if we didn’t already have enough ways to buy video games. The Xbox Experience brings an outlet for independent and amateur game developers to showcase and sell their games to the public. Somewhat like the Apple App store, these games can be created by small, independent basement publishers. Some developers have worried about overcrowding and low-quality content on the system, but Microsoft promises a robust central storefront and game rating system to help weed out the chaff. Who knows, maybe the next Geometry Wars or Braid will come out of someone’s basement. Potential developers can learn more about the XNA platform and the community games feature here.

5) Most Popular Category
The ability to sort and rate games is not only limited to the community arcade. This feature extends to all Xbox 360 games, including retail titles, in the newly designed marketplace. Here, gamers can check out the titles they may have missed by sorting them by new arrivals, genre, and most popular. Each game now has a lengthy description, allowing gamers to discover new titles to play in every genre, from small indie XBLA shooters to obscure Eastern European puzzle games. This may seem like a small change at first, but the ability to discover and play new gaming experiences is really something all gamers can appreciate.