August 11th Xbox 360 Update Review

Another month, another update for the Xbox 360 LIVE experience. At least there wasn't any major disruption this time while they added the changes, other than taking a few minutes to install when I turned on my Xbox in the morning. Despite all the videos and advertisements detailing the arrival of this great new update, it affects relatively few people's gaming experience and in the end, doesn't accomplish a whole lot. A few of my friends are still scratching their heads wondering what the fuss was about. Others don't even know there was one.

The most notable change is to the customization options available to your avatar. You may have seen a few of your friends wielding lightsabres or donning COG helmets, or even a couple playing with remote-control cars. If you're inclined to throwing out Microsoft points for new avatar items, this update may excite you. But if you're like the rest of us - normal - the thought of dishing dollars out for pixels will disgust you. Apparently you can earn new items by playing games, and although I haven't received any as of yet, this will probably be the only joy I will get out of this aspect of the update.

The marketplace has had a few new bells and whistles added; you can now rate games and downloadable items, hopefully saving others from purchasing dud-arcade games or themes. It looks like an item must have at least 10 people rate it before the rating shows, so don't be alarmed if your ratings don't show immediately. Also added are Games On Demand, a feature similar to the Xbox Classics room, except for Xbox 360 games like Mass Effect and Viva Piñata. Unfortunately if you don't have a credit card enabled on your account, you're going to have to go out and purchase enough Microsoft points, which means you probably could get the game you're after while you're out too!

A few other features included in the update are advanced friends list sorting, a few tweaks to the achievement system and of course the number of years you've been with Xbox LIVE posted on your gamertag. While overall this is an painless update, it didn't warrant the hype for what is also a fairly mundane update. The few features it adds aren't all that special and for most gamers, won't be noticed.