So it’s been a little while since the Microsoft E3 Press Conference, of which one of the notable announcements was a completely revamped Dashboard to solve to clunky and bland problems of the existing Dashboard. Amongst this comes the inclusion of “Avatars”, little characters which you personalise and take into participating games which support it. You can also make a Live Party in which you and your friends make a party and join into games together, or watch movies together via a new partnership with Netflix. Interestingly Microsoft also announced to ability to install games to your hard drive, potentially minimising the jet engine noise that is from the DVD drive.Of course this conveniently coincides with their new 60GB SKU announcement, which means those of us who want that kind of luxury must succumb to grabbing a bigger, overpriced, proprietary hard drive from Microsoft.

First of all let me say that I’m not particularly keen on the whole Avatar system. It seems with Sony busily working on Home and the Wii having their Mii’s, all this spells Microsoft being a bit left out and putting together a last ditch attempt at creating a 3D avatar system which attempts to rival and if not copy its competitor’s offering. Many have likened the Avatars to Mii’s, and they’re quite right in doing so. After all, what other alternative is there to create a stupid looking version of yourself and kit it out with not so interesting attire all for the sake of “personality”. I guess Microsoft thought their Gamerpics system wasn’t enough to last this generation.

As for the new Dashboard it self, granted it does seem to function more efficiently and smoothly than the current Dashboard, and isn’t as clunky nor cumbersome to use. But from a design standpoint it looks very similar to the whole Flip 3D experience on Microsoft Vista, fused with some sort of Media Center variant. In any case, Microsoft’s target is obviously the XMB, which is much superior to the existing Dashboard at the moment. It’s early days yet, but perhaps now this new Dashboard will finally rival the XMB in terms of ease of use and functionality.On the whole I’m still very undecided about the new Dashboard. Whilst I appreciate Microsoft for finally doing something about it and speeding up the Dashboard, the whole Avatar system seems very tacky and something I’d avoid altogether. Hell, if I wanted to make a silly version of myself and see that version in various games I’d go out and buy a Wii. I can’t help thinking Microsoft are chasing the wrong crowd here, but only time will tell.