It’s about time that a site like this popped up. Ever since the NXE dashboard update came out for the Xbox 360, none of us have been able to properly preview any of the new premium themes before forking out 250 MS points to download them. Well, now it’s as easy as visiting www.nxethemes.com and browsing around for a theme …

Major Nelson has announced that there are some new items of clothing for your Avatars to get all dressed up for Christmas. The ladies out there will be pleased to hear that they have added in some new shoes as I hear that there is a problem with the current selection, though to be honest I don’t even remember putting …

Very soon, the first set of Horse Armor, I mean... let me start again. As you all know, the NXE dashboard update has brought with it a whole lot of possibilities in terms of friends list backgrounds as well as avatar clothing options. Microsoft have now announced that they will be continually releasing theme packs that include avatar clothing over the next six months. Pretty soon, a Ninja Blade them is going to be released for Xbox Live that not only comes with a background image and friends list backdrops, but 5 pieces of themed clothing to wrap around your new Xbox Live Avatar. As much as I am enjoying the new dashboard, I am sorry to say that a new era has begun in terms of paid downloadable content. While I already thought it pretty ridiculous that so many people were spending tons of money on gamerpics and dashboard themes in the old dashboard, the new dashboard brings with it an entirely new way to draw gamers' money out of their wallets. The price has gone up as well. More after the jump. While the old dashboard themes had a price tag of 150 points, the new ones are coming in at 250 points and while they are significantly more interesting than before, I can see a whole lot of people throwing their money at Xbox Live just to get some interesting clothing and backdrops to look at. At the same time, I have to wonder... if one of you are on my friends list and you download and add new items to your avatar, doesn't that mean that I will have to download them automatically when I next see you in my friends list? I think so. So tell you what, do us all a favour. Save your money by not spending it on silly outfits because at the end of the day, you will be saving all of us a bunch of bandwidth as well.

Just a reminder to anyone who may have actually forgotten, today is the day that the New Xbox Dashboard Experience arrives. When you get home and switch on your Xbox 360, you will be asked to update. Once the update is downloaded and complete, you can start creating your avatar and messing around with the new layout. I am really looking forward to the new party chat that will allow 8 players to hook up and chat as well as move into game lobbies. All in all the new dashboard might not be as impressive as what Sony has planned for Home but I am really excited at the idea of never having to look at another dashboard blade go "whoosh" across my screen ever again.

There is currently a popular story doing the rounds about how Epic Games think that Microsoft is winning the online battle due to their added content. In an interview with Gamesindustry.biz, Epic's Mike Capps says that it's due to Microsoft's policy of adding of constantly "adding cool stuff". That's all good and well but it's the next part of the interview that got my interest. More after the jump. He goes on to say the that: "But I love the fact that you boot through the dashboard now - I understand how some gamers might not like it so much, but that's how you join into the Xbox Live experience - your dashboard comes up, you get to see what's new, hey, there's some free stuff you didn't know about - instead of just booting into your game and missing the community." It never ceases to amaze me how people can so easily soften words to try and make something hugely profitable look like it is something that has been done as a favour to us, the gamers. He speaks about missing the community and seeing that there is free stuff available, when in truth, it's actually just all about pushing as much money-making DLC down our throats as possible. This reminds me of the famous quote, "out of sight, out of mind".

Xbox 360 'New Xbox Experience Walkthrough' The New Xbox Experience isn’t launching until November 19, but they’ve been checking it out at 1UP for a week now, and they are passing the savings onto you. Or, uh, the knowledge at least. Check out the video walkthrough that GameVideos Associate Producer David Ellis put together to get your first look at …

If you haven't visited Xbox.com recently, you wouldn't have noticed that a few changes have taken place. Microsoft have now added the ability to try out the new Xbox Dashboard Experience within their website by simulating the interface using flash. It does a pretty decent job of showing you how its going to work on a basic level but we are going to have wait for it's release before we get to fiddle around with all of the functions. Seeing that we don't really get to choose whether or not we want to switch to the new interface, we can at least start warming up to the idea. I personally think that the new dashboard is looking fantastic compared to the current one and the avatars aren't looking bad at all. Throw in the party system and 8 player conference chat and I am pretty much completely sold.

A new video has been made available from PAX of a dashboard walkthrough done by none other than Major Nelson. The new video is about as shaky as Cloverfield and The Blair With Project put together but its decent enough that you can see what's happening without any issues. He covers a whole bunch of the new features, from the ability to preview themes to the new party mode and avatars. I am getting really excited to get my hands on the new dashboard and all of its new features. All we know is that Fall (our Spring) cannot get here quick enough.