XBOX.com and XBOX Live Back Online with Serious Upgrades
After 24 hours of shakes, sweats, and hallucinations, it’s good to know that the new XBOX.com website is back online. Gone are the funky boarders that we had all come to know and love. The new website is very straight forward and logical and packed with important information that is well worth the time to read.The first thing I checked out was the Xbox Live information. “The cat’s out of the bag: Xbox Live has a new pricing program for Xbox 360 owners, and it’s golden.” Straight from the Xbox.com website, Xbox 360 has two levels of Xbox Live membership; Silver and Gold.
While it appears that both Silver and Gold memberships allow you to play the same great online multiplayer experience that the Xbox has excelled at, the Gold membership does have it’s privileges. Xbox Live Gold is enhanced for Sbox 360, you have total control over your online experience. Check out the articles on the feedback system, enhanced friends list, matchmaking, Gamer Zones, and tournament systems for full details about each component of Xbox Live Gold.
The Feedback system finally comes into play, the player review system is now a matchmaking tool that directly affects a player’s reputation based on user-submitted feedback. The system will know who you’ve had a good game experience with, and assigns a higher priority to those people that you prefer, based on your feedback submission. Negative player reviews work the same way, but with the opposite effect. In a nutshell, the jerks will get matched up with the jerks, while the rest of us play with good sports. This is welcome news to all of us who have been forced to finish out a loosing battle with quitters and cheaters.
Another great new feature of Xbox Live is the “Gamer Zone”. Four differenet zones are available for your choose from and will help tell others the kind of player your are. It’s another great way the Xbox Live experience will now match you up with other like-minded players during matchmaking. The four levels are: Recreation – designed for casual gamers who just want to have fun. Family – where “kids of all ages” can gather for family-friendly gaming. Pro – designed for the Hardcore gamers like me who are there to play and to win, improving their gamescore, Underground – where anything goes and usually does, perfect for the annoying human beat box and betraying team killers.
It looks like Xbox Live has delivered what it’s promised and has taken the terrific multi-player online game-play a step in the right direction. It’s always been a frustrating task when trying to play a serious online game and improve your ranking while some young jerk starts to betray the whole team. Finally, they will have their own clubhouse to go play in and leave us hardcore Xbox Live fans to real game. Kudos Xbox.
posted by Bob Narley @ 5:10 AM
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