I was just updating a list of work colleagues gamercards and I noticed there’s a direct path to any Avatar’s 2D image, you simply just need to insert the gamertag and escape the URL appropriatly where needed.

For Example, my gamertag is “DannyG UK” so a link to my avatar would be:

http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/DannyG%20UK/avatar-body.png

The %20 simply replaces any spaces, also being a Microsoft system it’s no case sensitive, also you can get away without using the %20, that is a bit sloppy though

This means you can embed your avatar if various other places throught the web: for example:

Example

<img src="http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/DannyG%20UK/avatar-body.png" />

You can also do the same with your little gamerpic photo type thingy you use in your Gamercard. This however comes in two sizes:

Large Example:

http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/DannyG%20UK/avatarpic-l.png

Small Example:

http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/DannyG%20UK/avatarpic-s.png

Enjoy!

It’s been almost 5 days since I excitedly watched the update bar progress and the latest and biggest xbox 360 dashboard update appear on my TV. The flashy intro video was great, and although I found the new dashboard a little baffling at first, I think all round it is a huge improvement, and not just a flashy gimmick.

Avatar Fun

It’s easy to look at the Avatar feature and just dismiss it as a Mii rip-off, but I think all round it adds a bit more personalisation to Xbox Live. I enjoyed making an Avatar of myself, and had to resist making something rediculous just for the sake of it. I think the general look of the avatars is just on the right side of realism. You can pretty much make something that looks just like you but without it being too creepy. Every day i’ve been looking through my friends avatars and having a good laugh at how similar they look in real life, or in some cases just looking at them to get an idea of what they might look like in real life if they’re friends I’ve never actually met. At the moment these avatars just simply sit in the Xbox Live Friends channel and various other locations on the dashboard as well as in a 2D form on xbox.com. They will gradually start to become an identify you can choose to use in certain types on game, much in the same way as the Wii.

Speed

One of the most practical improvements has to be the increase in speed as you navigate around. This makes the whole messaging friends experience a lot more pleasant. There are supposeldy improvements in the speed of marketplace, and whilst i can see that in some areas scrolling through long lists has improved, some parts of marketplace were very slow this week. However the Live team have noted this and are apparently working to improve it.

Overall I like the New Xbox Experience (NXE) a lot, it’s like you’re getting somethign tangible for free (if you ignore the annual Live Gold cost).

On the eve of the biggest Xbox dashboard update ever, i.e the New Xbox Experience , I thought i’d have a go at trying to put through some non-standard looking characters to see if you can customise your Xbox Live Motto etc. This isn’t that difficult as you modify your profile through the browser using www.xbox.com and therefore you can cut and paste all variety of odd characters you find.

I tried out quite a few, basically there’s no real pattern to it, some characters work and others don’t, below is a selection of characters  that definitly work, however there’s loads more that probabley will as well.

• ?
• ?
• ?
• ½
• ¢
• ©
• ™
• ®
• •
• ?
• ?
• ?

An Example:

Note: I haven’t tried to view my mottor through an Xbox console since making these changes, so I have no idea how or if they can be viewed correctly through the dashboard, however I can’t see why they couldn’t be.

I almost forgot about Left 4 Dead, i’m not sure why either, it’s right up my street, I love zombies and I love shooting the shit out of stuff. I’ve seen various videos and screen shots over the months but for some reason it wasn’t one of those games that I stuck in my calandar for a pre-order.

However, looking at recent videos, reading previews and hearing from peopel who’ve actually played it, it sounds pretty damn good. So I stuck a preorder in and hopefully it’ll arrive on the 21st November (please amazon). Anyway today the demo is supposedly released on Xbox Live, so all you zombie loving mothers can get some good zombie mashing fun in today.

If you want to read some spoilers on the third Lfet 4 Dead campaign you can check it out on Rock Paper Shotgun

I was one of the people that bought the first Saints Row, it was the first sandbox game I’d played on the 360 and possibly the first of that genre on the platform. GTA IV was a long way off at the time and so it seemed like a good decision, and i think for the most part it was. Saints Row 1 was nothing special but it was entertaining enough.

So now GTA 4 has come and mostly gone (roll on the DLC) and it was pretty awesome, it looked good, it played well and I found it very hard to put down. I even took the launch day afternoon off work so i didn’t have to stare at it on my desk until 17.30.

So along comes Saints Row 2, from the screen shots and videos it looked very similar to the first outing, the graphics weren’t up to the GTA IV standard but apparently it’s not all about graphics anyway Last week i actually purchased Saints Row 2 (it was my birthday after all). There’s loads of differences between it and GTA and I don’t think there’s much point is comparing the two, however the one thing I wold say is that Saints Row 2 is 100% fun, whereas GTA had certain elements that were incrediliby boring and pointless (dates, pool and bowling). Saints Row 2 has loads of activities and I’m sure they’ll not all be to everyone’s taste they’re all fun and that’s what gamning is about at the end of the day isn’t it?