Wii60 has been taken too serriously, or the new Xbox "Experience"

Hey,

I've been having a good first summer of the rest of my life. I graduated High School and waiting to start living on my own in college. My summer has been helped greatly by the great games that have come out so far in the summer for my 360. I've been chilling on Unreal Tournament 3, Battlefield Bad Company, DBZ: Burst Limit, as well as reliving a little bit of Halo 1 with Cold Storage (as flawed as it may be, but in the long run, H3 needed the small map).

Today was an exciting day, the official kick off of E3, gaming's big week. And on the first day the Microsoft Press Conference. And boy what a conference it was. Exclusive Fallout 3 DLC, Final Fantasy, Gears 2, even a little bit of Halo Wars love. But the big news, and the sad news, is the new Xbox Dashboard that will be jetting through the tubes this fall. A lot of people don't like the current Xbox Dash, but I've always found it to be intuitive. Sure, the XBLA List might take a little bit to load, and sometimes you have to look for something, but for the most part, your going to be playing retail games and surfing XBLM anyway, and those functions worked fine. The gamer pictures and themes made sense, the evoked a sense of Web 2.0 that made gamers feel comfortable. And no matter what Microsoft wants to think, the only thing that is stopping Playstation from crushing them again is the hardcore fanbase that play H3 and COD4 on XBL every day, the guys that hang on Major Nelson's every word, the guys that know about everything before you annouce it, the guys that made Halo the moneymaker it is today.

Instead of continuing to pander to this demo, with things like that final Back Compat update (still no Beyond Good and Evil?) Gamewide clan support (which was already proven with the hidden gem "Gang" feature in Saints Row) and a good E3 XBLA release like Castle Crashers, Duke Nukem Online, hell I'd take Halo themed Uno DLC, they have decided that the Wii is stealing too much gaming thunder. And they've decided that the PS3 isn't really down for the count. So they're big annoucements play like a list of ideas combined from both consoles.

• Lips=Singstar
• Avatars=Miis
• Xbox Primetime=Buzz (although I will be interested in the real prize aspect)
• New Dash=PS3 XMB
• Xbox Parties+Clothing Customization=Home Killer (and it hasn't even come out yet, bummer Sony)
• Movies Game=Eyetoy (from the PS2...)
• They also still can't dodge the rumor of a Wiimote killer in development
  

There were good things in the press conference. Installing games to the HDD was long overdue, and will help with a few of my scratched discs I imagine. Streaming Netflix movies off the console will be sick. And I'm mostly for the whole Gameshow/Big Chat idea, but why do we need the cutesy Mii ripoffs? Guys that have Xbox are gamers, not Wii Fanboys. We chat like they do on the PC, with mics and webcams. Why couldn't they have worked on multiple person Video Chat, or work it into the dash instead of running a completly different application that makes playing Uno the default mode for chatting? Why the focus on media, when Xbox was built on solid hardcore FPS/Racing gaming roots? Why try to attract kids to the console with the most bloody action games and shooters? Master Chief is the mascot, and he's not kid friendly.

It just kinda bummed me out that I spent money on some of the gamer pics and themes that will now be obsolete. Oh sure, they say you can keep your pic, but it will be shoved off to the side as more arcade games and the 8 person chat needs Avatars to function. All the themes I bought are a complete wash. I guess, in the end, I'll still be playing Halo Wars and Soul Calibur 4 on the same console. But maybe I'll decide to load to the disc instead of the dash.

-May you never pay for digital clothing
Pudge