Gadgetory

after five very close round the scores at an even to both consoles have shown their strong points and revealed some weaknesses well hardware is all but covered in the next two arrives we'll be taking an in-depth look comparing the user interface that both consoles the Xbox 360s new Xbox experience versus the ps3's cross media bar is up next so get ready for some heavyweight game console action its LP from TechnoBuffalo and welcome to the next installment of the console wars every device these days seem to have some kind of user interface and in this generation of game consoles it's a given but mad how cool would it have been if the old 8-bit Nintendo had a UI imagine playing 8-bit tunes off your 64 kilobytes internal storage and proving to your buddies that you've truly beaten double dragon 2 and Castlevania by showing off your gamer trophies well this is possible in current generation game consoles well excluding the Wii of course you still can't keep track of what games you play on the Wii but you can always cast a vote on the everybody votes channel which is pretty awesome yeah but in any case in this run we'll be covering the user interfaces from the standpoint of functionality we'll be focusing on design overall usability and speed we'll also be taking a look at some of the more prominent offline features and there's so much to get through that if something doesn't get covered in this round stay frosty he'll be covered in the next one the ps3 and xbox360 are both very capable media devices with sophisticated user interfaces the Xbox 360 was first out of the gate with the dashboard interface that paved the way for the modern game console UI the original dashboard was complimented for its straightforward ease of use but since the Xbox 360 dashboard recently received a complete overhaul and renaming to the new Xbox experience that is what we're going to be looking at first impressions are important when assessing anything with graphical design if something is ugly on the first glance it's usually bound to be ugly on the second and third look as well but I have to admit I was a bit wowed by the design of the new Xbox experience I was not expecting anything this graphical and vivid from Microsoft the Nintendo mihrab of avatars aside the new Xbox experience or NX II has an appealing design that's nicely integrated into a unified experience and it does have an extremely polished and thought-out feel to it the last remnant that the old dashboard can be accessed when tapping down the menu button on the controller which is also accessible in-game the cross media bar or XMB is a totally different experience from a design standpoint Sony has taken a very minimalistic approach to the UI it has a very sleek but simple look to it and the layout of the cross media bar can be made out in single glance which is excellent even though I was impressed by the clean looking design of the XMB it did not wowed me as much as the new Xbox experience the new Xbox experience with its highly visual approach is definitely more accessible for the new user both systems have user profiles that work as your digital identity on the game consoles on the Xbox 360 the gamer profile is identified by a profile name called the gamertag the gamertag works is the Xbox Live account name but also an offline profile for your profile you're required to create an avatar the Xbox 360 avatars are basically high-definition versions of meze Microsoft has got a little flack about the avatars other resemble to the Nintendo DS but you really can't invent the wheel twice so I don't blame them I actually think the avatars are pretty cool they have vast customization possibilities and I even like the theme playing in the background avatars are also how your friends see you on Xbox Live and you can also take a picture of your avatar for your gamer tech there's also some mini games that you can enter with your avatar and play against your friends but I don't know I just rather play modern warfare 2 it is pretty clear that avatars were added to the new Xbox experience to appeal to the wider casual audience I'm betting hardcore gamers could have done without them but after having created in the user navigated in making the Xbox 360 experience more appealing to the wider audience on a side note I actually notice the other day that you can actually buy pets for your avatars I think this may be going a bit too far but some I've always kind of wanted a pet monkey the PlayStation 3 also requires you to create a user profile but the ps3 suffers a bit from an identity crisis first you have your PlayStation user account name where you can add your own avatar then you have your PlayStation Network profile that also has an avatar and what do you know there's also an avatar in PlayStation Home which is an entirely separate experience Otacon yeah not a con the point is they all feel a bit detached from each other where's the Xbox 360 user profile layout feels a bit more unified and I think it might make the ps3 more accessible to a wider audience if they unify the ps3's profile scheme but there are some perks of the ps3s profile system firstly the system does work very well if you have multiple users playing on the console the ps3 provides very efficient access to the different user accounts but most importantly the profile scheme gives you the ability to create user accounts registered to different regions giving you access to various places in network stores I have set up accounts for Europe USA in Japan alrighty next we're going to be checking out the customization possibilities on each console themes work as an extension to the design of the interface the PlayStation 3 has extensive customization possibilities for the ps3 you can find countless amount of themes online and you can also create your own themes using some third-party applications with a 3.0 firmware update you can also have some very cool animated themes some free and some will cost you a few bucks themes on the Xbox 360 are also kind of cool most of the time they work as a wallpaper or backdrop but for example the French channel is nicely integrated into the theme with some 3d elements as well but unfortunately most of the themes on the xbox360 are not free and while I like customizing my console I'm not willing to pay for it customization possibilities and themes are nice add-on to the user experience and I think the ps3 has a bit more to offer navigation on both systems is straightforward and simple but the system's have a slightly different approach to it navigating the new Xbox experience happens on two grids the vertical grid consists of channels for different categories of content and the horizontal grid consists of sub panes under that category as you can see the new Xbox experience is tightly woven into Xbox Live pretty much every channel has at least some integration with online service I'll get deeper into the services in the next round but from a navigational standpoint entering for example the Xbox Live Marketplace can be done from several access points which is convenient for the experienced user but for someone who's new to the interface the NX II can be quite easy to get lost in and in my opinion there may be too many pains to take you to content that cost you your hard earned cash navigation why is the biggest problem of the NX II is that you can't see what's on the other edge of the grid so you're forced to flick through the panes to find out what's on the other side of the grid a very good example of this is the friendslist you now have to scroll through the list to see who's online it feels a bit unnecessary it's not too much of a hassle if you know where everything is but it takes some exploring if you're new to the system the ps3s cross media bar has a bit more straightforward and classical approach to the navigation the XMB is also aligned on two grids on the horizontal grid we find icons representing different categories under the icons the XMB is opened up by a simple list that runs vertically navigation on the ps3 is quite self-explanatory under the tool icon you find your settings and under the music icon you find audio content and so on there is less integration to online features but on a positive note the online content is not scattered all around the interface and the PS Reis cross media bar definitely feels a lot less bloated with content than the nxe and there's also less coercion towards paid content on the ps3 game launching on both systems is excellent getting to your games is fast and easy but the ps3 has a more graphical approach which is definitely more appealing to the eye speed is something I appreciate I'd probably overclock my toaster word possible and the new Xbox experience is in many ways fast but speed is where the simplicity of the cross media bar shines the XMB is very fast to navigate and it's basically as fast as your fingers if you know your way around the interface everything is within the reach of a couple of seconds for example accessing your music and videos is almost instant you while accessing media content on the xbox360 is behind several I think unnecessary steps don't get me wrong I'm not saying that the new Xbox experience is in any way slow but what I am saying is that the ps3 interface is definitely faster and more responsive to sum it up the NX II is fast but it's limited a bit by the animations when moving between the panes while across medium bar is basically only limited by the speed of your fingers as a tech enthusiast I enjoy tinkering around with the settings so let's take a quick comparison when we take a look at the settings on the ps3 we immediately notice Sony's hardware background you can adjust the settings of pretty much every aspect of the hardware and this is to my liking the settings on the ps3 may be self-explanatory for the average tech head but for the casual user there's not much description to what most settings do on the 360 the settings pane is also quite extensive but with the difference that everything is explained with simplistic detail there's also a very convenient troubleshooting guide with fixes and solutions for your most common problems overall the ps3 extensive settings may appeal to the tech head but the ease of use of the Xbox can be a bit more appealing to those who are not interested in the tech side of gaming but this is where we get to the comparison of in-game user interface for the first year and a half of the ps3's life cycle there was no in-game XMB while the Xbox 360 had a very functional in-game interface from day one even with the new Xbox experience update the in-game dashboard has basically gone unchanged it does feel like a separate experience compared to the NX II but I'm pretty sure Microsoft has left the old in-game interface as a fail-safe and to keep the hardcore gamers happy you've always been able to play your custom music tracks compare achievements adjust some settings and chat with your buddies via the dashboard interface it's a system that worked very well from the start and it's really no surprise that Sony copied the whole concept in game X and B after Sony's numerous firmware updates the features are now pretty much the same but the in-game cross media bar still has some limitations for example custom music tracks are still not supported in every game in terms of layout and navigation the in-game cross media bar is basically the same as the cross media bar outside the game only difference is that it runs a lot slower any speed benefit the ps3 had outside the game is essentially gone the contrast in speed is such that I have to prefer the xbox 360's in-game user interface because it feels solid it works fast and it works well this round is coming to an end and I got to tell you it was an extremely tough round to decide and that's because both interfaces offer an excellent user experience the cross media bar and the new Xbox experience are a my opinion both excellent user interfaces the new xbox experience looks great it has great integration but it's a little bloated with the content and it's trying a bit too hard to appeal to everyone and when it comes down to it at the end of the day all the glitz and glam of the interface will become secondary functionality and speed is what will end up mattering and the cross media bar offers both so by a marginal edge the ps3 gets a point in this round but this was only the first half of rounds covering the interface in the next round we'll be taking a deeper look at the features including trophies and achievements will also be facing off the places and network against xbox live so stay tuned for the next round it's LP from TechnoBuffalo signing out