Gamestay.com, a not so pretty looking site, has a great article up about the flaws in the Xbox 360 that continues to annoy gamers and stop it from being the experience it could be.
One of the ones I fully agree with is listed, and that is a better shopping and downloading experience. Since when can’t a computer, especially with three processors, not download and allow me to do a few other things while I wait?
A better shopping experience. Xbox Live Marketplace is a big improvement over the in-game download interface in the original Xbox. And it’s great innovation to be able to download hi-def videos and movie trailers, dashboard skins, avatars and even Xbox Live Arcade games with a payment system that supports micro-transactions as small as 25 cents.
But it’s hardly the best online shopping experience. First off, there’s no cart. If you want to buy something, you select it and download it right away. And you’re stuck there waiting until it’s done downloading – anywhere from a few kilobytes for a lowly Gamer Picture to a gigabyte for a large demo. There’s not even an impulse aisle. All you can do is stare at the progress bar.
The good news is you can abort a long download and pick it up right where you left off later. But you really should be able to download your files all at once in he background while browsing around in the dashboard, or be prompted to get any pending items on shutdown, so the 360 can simply grab your queued files and purchases and then power off when you’re ready to call it a night – or a morning, as the case may be.
Oh, and items marked New shouldn’t be the items that you list as new for weeks on end. They should be the ones that are new since my last visit.