Microsoft claims that the New Xbox Experience -- that big dashboard upgrade being pushed to all 360 owners on November 19 -- will allow your favorite Xbox 360 games to load more quickly. To enjoy that benefit, a gamer will have to install their disc-based games onto their 360's hard drive.
People keep asking me if doing the installation is worth the trouble. Are loading times that much better?
I tested Microsoft's claim on four games, using my NXE-enabled 360. Above, you can watch the initial loading for "Grand Theft Auto IV," DVD vs Hard Drive. After the jump, check out loading comparisons for "Fable II" and "Gears of War."
(Videos not viewable by users logging in from Canada or the U.K.)
In all cases, I spammed the A button of my controller as soon as the game started loading, so you're seeing my fastest attempts to get from the new dashboard to the new games.
Each of the games took about 11 minutes to install and required between 6.6 and 6.8GB. It shaved off about nine to 15 seconds off the initial load times.Think it's worth it?
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