Playing this weekend – Fable 2

February 27th, 2009 • 1 comment Blog, Games
Tags: fable 2, Games, xbox

Weekend is coming, what video-games will you play this weekend to take your mind out of work, crisis and everything?

I’ve finished Fable 2 recently but I’ve still got a few quests left, so I might as well give a little review.

Fable 2 is the expected sequel to the first Fable (duh) game which was released on Xbox and Pc. At the time, there were high expectations (in many ways thanks to Peter Molineux’s interviews) about the game which were shrouded completely when the game was released. So is Fable 2 any better?

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New Xbox Experience Layout

November 25th, 2008 • Comments Off Blog, Games, Web, design
Tags: experience, Games, layout, ui, usability, xbox

In case you’ve missed it, Microsoft released last week a long awaited update for Xbox 360 Live users with new features and a whole new revamped layout.

The integration between online and the xbox interface is more tight, it’s much more usable, there’s more information before you buy a specific item on the marketplace and a bunch of new features making the experience very worthwhile.

You can now install games on the hard-drive, thus cutting down on loading times and making the Xbox run quieter.

The new avatars look cute but they don’t add much value yet, I guess it’s the natural response to PS3’s Home and the Wii’s interface with the Mii’s. So far there’s only two games that take advantage of the new avatars but I guess more will come in the future.

There’s also new “premium” themes which look impressive but cost more. I don’t understand why there isn’t an option to preview a theme yet but some nice folks have been taking photos and screenshots so you know what you’re buying beforehand.

G4TV also posted a nice preview video but if you have a Xbox 360 the best thing to do is just connect it to the web and update.

Gizmodo also has a great article: 10 things you should know about the new Xbox Live Experience.

new Xbox 360 Dashboard

July 18th, 2008 • 1 comment Apple, Blog, Games, design
Tags: dashboard, usability, xbox

Microsoft revealed the new and revamped UI for the X-Box 360 last week on E3 and it was about time.

The current dashboard although not being too bad, has a few problems which sucessive update haven’t fixed, such as  too much information on screen, a bit of lag, hard to navigate in so much content (you have videos, games, addons, music,etc) and some areas were simply over-complicated.

Old Xbox Layout:

New Layout below:

With this aproach I think Microsoft is going the “Apple way” and going for a more simple, less complicated but coese design. On the other hand, with Sony releasing it’s “Home” pseudo-Second Live world/dashboard and given the Wii’s success with the Mii’s, Microsoft felt the need to introduce some sort of Avatars into the console.

Joystiq has posted a video walkthrough of the new Dashboard and Xbox Focus has detailed information on the new features. Now it’s all about waiting for the next system-update and experience the new dashboard hands-on.