I turned on the Xbox this morning, and logged on to XBoxLive in hopes to get a few games of Marvel vs Capcom 2 in before I start my day- you know, cause this is what wakes me up in the morning. Instead, I got a message saying that I have to download an update for the console. What the heck? I thought the summer dashboard just went into beta testing phase last week!

Oh wells… Download. Restart. Update. Restart. I sign in and take a look at the features.

Games on Demand

This is a pretty awesome feature they added. You were able to purchase and download some of the original XBox games before, but now they added a few XBox360 games to the library. There are a few games from the Greatest Hits category that I saw on there.

Normally I like to have a physical copy of any game I purchase, but being able to play any game straight from the hard drive would be pretty sweet. You won’t need to swap out discs when you want to change games anymore. Man… this is just going to make players lazier and lazier.

The price for each game are around $5 bucks more than the price you would see it at Gamestop or Best Buy. So what you are paying for is the convenience of not having to go out and buy it yourself. Also, you won’t have the problem of getting your discs scratched or lost anymore.

Avatar Marketplace

Oh god… they added a marketplace where you can buy stuff for your XBox360 Avatar. Wow, what a waste of money (via Microsoft points). Let’s see… 2000 Microsoft points costs $25. So its $5 for 400 Microsoft points. $1 for 80 Microsoft points. That is pretty much all you need to know if you want to convert Bill Gates money into American dollars.

So how much would these Avatar clothing going to cost me? Buying my Avatar hats would cost me from $1 to $2. There are hats with Halo emblems, some with Gears of War emblems, some hats from Fable II. Meh… I’m not gonna spend a dollar to buy my Avatar a Gears of War baseball cap.

Next we have T-Shirts, oh boy! Same as the hats, they come in various designs base on some of your favorite games. Like the hats, I’m not going to bother. There’s shoes too, pass. Rings!? Pass. C’mon, give us something cool!

Hmm… the Big Daddy helmet from Bioshock for 2 bucks. Looks pretty cool, but not for me. COG Armor from Gears of War, 4 bucks for the suit, 2 bucks for the helmet. Looks pretty cool, but not $6 cool. Maybe if you’re a big Gears fan. There is a similar suit thingy for Halo ODST too for 5 bucks. Still not for me.

Oh joy! I can buy pom poms for my Avatar for $2! Or sandals for a buck! Sneakers for 2 dollars each! You could be buying a game for the price of dressing up your Avatar!

Jeez… this Avatar Marketplace thing has to be one of the biggest joke Microsoft has ever come up with. Who in the right mind will ever spend money on something so ridicu- HOLY SHIT A LIGHTSABER!!!

Totally worth the 5 bucks!!!

*ahem* Like I said, the Avatar marketplace has to be one of the coolest feature Microsoft has ever implemented for the Xbox360. Fans of any game will find new ways to show their support for the games they love.

Summary: I got a freaking Lightsaber! That is all.