Comments on: The XBOX Experience is New http://about12minutes.com/blog/the-xbox-experience-is-new/ Unscripted. Unbridled. Uncanny. Wed, 06 Jul 2011 20:52:02 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Chris http://about12minutes.com/blog/the-xbox-experience-is-new/comment-page-1/#comment-722 Chris Tue, 25 Nov 2008 12:27:45 +0000 http://about12minutes.com/?p=647#comment-722 The reasoning for having to keep the disc in is actually quite simple, security. If you could just install the game to your hard drive and you didn't need the disc to verify that you actually do own the game what would stop people from just going to Blockbuster and renting a title with the purpose of installing it. As for not seeing a diference in Dead Rising its possible that one, the game was previously optimized for disc play, ala Halo 3, or that you just aren't noticing the difference. Some games are only improving by a 1-2 second margin (Rock Band 2 seems to be this way) in load times but others its shaving off 10-15 seconds from their load times (Bioshock, Fallout 3, etc...) While that may not seem like a lot on the surface if you play a lot of games those seconds turn into minutes and those minutes to hours which means you are playing more and waiting less. The sliding panes are still there, kind of. If you hit the XBOX guide button it brings up a mini (and modified) version of the old dashboard. The reasoning for having to keep the disc in is actually quite simple, security. If you could just install the game to your hard drive and you didn’t need the disc to verify that you actually do own the game what would stop people from just going to Blockbuster and renting a title with the purpose of installing it. As for not seeing a diference in Dead Rising its possible that one, the game was previously optimized for disc play, ala Halo 3, or that you just aren’t noticing the difference. Some games are only improving by a 1-2 second margin (Rock Band 2 seems to be this way) in load times but others its shaving off 10-15 seconds from their load times (Bioshock, Fallout 3, etc…) While that may not seem like a lot on the surface if you play a lot of games those seconds turn into minutes and those minutes to hours which means you are playing more and waiting less.

The sliding panes are still there, kind of. If you hit the XBOX guide button it brings up a mini (and modified) version of the old dashboard.

]]> By: Jay V http://about12minutes.com/blog/the-xbox-experience-is-new/comment-page-1/#comment-721 Jay V Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:36:40 +0000 http://about12minutes.com/?p=647#comment-721 After getting to play with it, I do like this better, though I think Avatars are a useless and awesome addition, and I miss the sliding window pane things. So, I installed "Dead Rising" when I got it, and I saw zero improvement in loading time, AND I still need the disc inside the drive to play it! That removes ANY convenience, to me, of installing it to the hard drive. If I wanted to play "Rock Band" right after "Dead Rising" I'm still going to have to unpack it from the box an load it into the disc drive, put the old game back into <em>its</em> box, and by that time I don't want to have to set up the drums and guitar either. So, really. What's the point? After getting to play with it, I do like this better, though I think Avatars are a useless and awesome addition, and I miss the sliding window pane things.

So, I installed “Dead Rising” when I got it, and I saw zero improvement in loading time, AND I still need the disc inside the drive to play it! That removes ANY convenience, to me, of installing it to the hard drive. If I wanted to play “Rock Band” right after “Dead Rising” I’m still going to have to unpack it from the box an load it into the disc drive, put the old game back into its box, and by that time I don’t want to have to set up the drums and guitar either. So, really. What’s the point?

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