I would still like to see a better Save/Load system, one that is handled by the Operating System and not the game; There is still no way to jump back to the top level of the Dashboard if you are three levels deep in Marketplace; And they have yet to address the profiles issues for local multiplayer. But lets get to the stuff they did fix/add:

• DVD Player - The DVD player software has received substantial updates. Bookmarks are now supported — press stop, eject the disc, and the software will remember the film’s timing and location when you resume viewing. Fast-forward and rewind smoothness has been improved, and the video quality has seen an immense boost. Matt tells me the lava scene at the end of Episode III has almost no compression artifacts, the same can be said about Godzilla.

  The DVD player now upscales the signal through the VGA cable, but does not go above 480p using Component — oh well. In all, the DVD player enhancements were something we did not expect.



• Video - Video downloaded from Marketplace now have the same controls as the DVD player. You can finally fast-forward, rewind, pause, etc., just like a DVD. This was a small oversight in the initial 360 Dashboard, but this is one of those small but very welcome changes.


• Music Player - There are a number of updates to the 360's music player, some more minor than others. You can now listen to your music without interruption, it does not matter if you are in a game, Marketplace, Arcade, or just navigating the Dashboard, your music continues to play. Your music also now pauses, instead of stops, when a game overrides user-selected background music. A welcome improvement, there is now a Shuffle/Repeat button on the Guide blade. Downloading CDDB information (Album, Title, Artist, etc.) felt much faster than before too.


• Xbox Live Arcade - While the games do not load any faster, it will show Last Game Played almost immediately. This is great when I want to play Astropop, and don't want to wait for all 15 games to load before I can do so. The problem here lies with the definition of "Last Game Played." If I stick to just Arcade games, I am fine. But if I play any retail game in between, then the Last Game Played listing in the Arcade does not appear until all Arcade games are loaded. This is a slight improvement, but not ideal by any means. The Arcade portion of the Marketplace also saw some organizational improvements.


• Gamertiles - You can now have two separate gamer pictures. One the entire world sees, and one that only people on your friends list sees. The biggest use for this feature will be when the Vision Camera ships in September, so that only friends can see that lame ass mug of yours.


• Vision Camera Support - The Xbox 360 camera, otherwise known as the Vision Camera, is now ready to plug in and work "out of the box" after today's update. Many camera features are found in different places of the Dashboard, just waiting for you to buy the camera.


• Speed Improvements - The overall performance of the Dashboard user interface has sped up. Everything feels snappier. A very small change, while scrolling through long lists of music tracks, the scrolling speed increases too. This is great for me, and works equally well when I have my iPod connected, or am streaming from iTunes on my Mac. Speed improvements might seem like the smallest detail of all in this update, but it just makes the user experience that much better.

There are really too many updates to mention here. One of my favorite tiny details is being able to turn off that "whoosh" sound effect. Another handy features allows you to set a theme right after you download it. Theme settings are also found in the System Blade, where before they were buried.

Article Author: Ken Edwards

Ken Edwards is the Gaming Editor at Blogcritics, and calls Breaking Windows home. Ken works part time for Student Publications at BGSU as the Webmaster and System Administrator. He is also a freelance web developer.

Visit Ken Edwards's author page — Ken Edwards's Blog