New Xbox Experience

When did I become such a lazy gamer that I require a snazzy new UI to actually get me interested in Xbox live arcade again? It's sad I used to be a hardcore PC gamer back in the 90s. Most of what I played were mods that required extensive fiddling with .cfg files just to play, and I liked it... yet for the last 2 years I have barely even looked in the Xbox dashboard because I felt it was a chore.

Well that is a problem no more. With the so called "New Xbox experience" MS has in my opinion surpassed sony's elegant Cross media bar for usability and style. NXE is an almost embarrassingly apple like UI looking a hell of a lot like the cover flow on my ipod. In short Between the INCREDIBLE crop of AAA games we have this year, and NXE's flash, the long cold coals of my inner hardcore gamer have been reignited.

Aside from the improvements to the store, the inclusion of streaming video for previews that works flawlessly, and the new ability to do Netflix on demand I am finally starting to get on the "One box for all your entertainment needs" bandwagon.

I am not a system partisan, I have owned many different game consoles from many manufacturers over the years, but when My 360 red ringed MS lost a lot of my good will, and I fell in love with my PS3 (The same thing with Sony happened when my PS2 failed). But after buying a few multiplatform games such as Soul calibur 4 and Armored Ciore For Answer for PS3, I have to say the usability of Microsoft's platform and online infrastructure makes it the better choice for gaming.

If you are still sitting on the fence about which system to buy I think NXE is definitely one more point in the 360s favor.