When the New Xbox Experience was released last year, one of the greatest features of the update was the ability to install games to your Xbox 360 hard drive to help decrease loading times.  Sadly, not all games benefited from this.

Most older titles were designed to be played from the disc and developers optimized data on the discs, often duplicating it in various regions on the disc, to stream loads.  Games like Halo 3 and Crackdown were actually slower when installed to the hard drive.  

The Crackdown team though recently released an update for the game that will remedy the situation, making loading from the hard drive a more optimized experience.  It's a good time to give the game another go to get yourself hyped for Crackdown 2. 

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The first batch of invites went out late last night to lucky Xbox 360 owners who applied to be in the latest preview program.  With it comes the ability to access Twitter, Facebook, Last.FM, Zune Marketplace and instant 1080p on demand movies.

Quite the feature list.

Did you get in?  What are your thoughts?

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Microsoft's next dashboard update will be launching soon, and they are offering gamers a chance to get their hands on it early.  

What exactly will the update entail?  Twitter and Facebook integration for one, making it easier to find other co-op gamers and get games going.  There's also Zune Marketplace to integrate with that shiny new ZuneHD you have.  

So hit this link and sign up, chances are you'll get in.  They are looking for thousands of previewers.

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The new Xbox 360 dashboard is live this morning for all to download.  You'll be prompted for a system update once you boot your Xbox 360 and connect to Xbox Live.

The update will get you a brand new party system in Netflix, Avatar items and unlockables, games on demand, a full rating system for all content, and enhanced user interface features like a new achievement browser and sortable friends lists.  You may even see some performance improvements.  You can find out the entire change log of updates on Xbox.com.

Which feature is your favorite feature of the update?  What feature would you like to see in future updates?  

According to Major Nelson, if you applied to be in the customer preview of the latest dashboard update - and you were chosen - you should have received an email that looked like the above picture.  The update should be applied the next time you turn on your Xbox 360.

If you didn't get accepted, don't worry, they are still accepting applications and it looks like a 2nd batch of invites may go out.

The update includes many new features including Netflix Parties, Game Ratings, UI Enhancements and numerous other tweaks.  We've got a thread going with Co-Optimus member feedback right here.  If you're running the new dash, let us know what you think!

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Photo from Tipheret's Flickr photostream

VG247 reported this week that Rare is teasing unlockable clothing -- and possibly accessory items -- for our Xbox 360 NXE avatars in the near future.

In a manner similar to Achievements, gamers will gain access to unique garb from select game developers as they work their way through the game.

This is something that Co-Optimus users have discussed in the forums, and it's good to see that Rare is on board with gamers in general. Of course, beyond turning Banjo into an animated papercraft...when has Rare not been in synch with gamers?

Now all we need is for Valve to get on board, and we'll have Left 4 Dead lookalike avatars and infected horde premium themes before we know it!

Thanks to Kielaran for the e-mail tip!

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I spy with my little eye a BAPenguin avatar!  Can you see it?  The Good Major has brought word that Xbox 360 owners can download a neat and free app called the SnowGlobe which puts your friends list inside a..uh...snow globe.  Watch as the helplessly try to get out of your maniacal trap; tapping on the glass, screaming for help, and desperately gasping for air.  Ok, so I made that last part up, but you can shake it and watch it snow.  White X360-Mas indeed.

Speaking of avatars, if you head into the customization section for avatars you'll notice some new winter gear, free of charge, to keep your avatar nice and warm during his stay in the snow globe.  These items are easily recognizable as they are marked with a star, denoting a new item.  You can even download a holiday theme to go with it, free to Gold Members...no, not that one.

From what we hear we can expect new "theme packs" of avatar accessories every few months.  There's no official word if they'll be free like the winter pack, but we can only hope.  My guess is the first time there's a Master Chief helmet available, that'll be the first time they charge.  

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We're big fans of Microsoft's revamped dashboard called the New Xbox Experience.  It's not just the fancy features like a party system, streamlined interface, Netflix, or even avatars.  Nope, we love it because of the new events channel which showcases awesome community events like our very own Xbox Live Co-Op Night!  

Microsoft likes the NXE too.  Not only for the above reasons but because they've already seen a noticeable improvement in many areas including arcade downloads, video downloads, friend requests, and more.  

We've posted the full stats after the break, courtesy of the good Major.

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It was a bit of an odd week for news, with a giant holiday in the US sitting on Thursday.  Despite that, there were a few big announcements to hit this week.

Here's what we have on tap for Beyond Co-Op this week.

• Columbia Pictures returns to Netflix on NXE
• Super Street Fighter II HD Remix Released
• Video Game Voice Actor Shot in India Terrorist Attacks
• Assassin's Creed 2 in the Works
• Fallout 3 DLC Coming in January
• Xbox 360 'Jasper' Spotted in the Wild

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With all the avatars and Netflix and overall slickness, you might have forgotten one long-awaited feature of the New Xbox Experience(tm).  Installing games to the hard drive to speed up loading was certainly overdue.  I know there are a few games I have that make the disc drive on my 360 sound like a jet engine.  It seems to be a good thing that Halo 3 isn't one of them.  Installing the game to the hard drive actually increases load times!  Wonder how that works?  Bungie's Chief Caching Officer Mat Noguchi (there's a catchy title) explains.

So when Halo 3 runs, if a HDD is present, we copy maps from the DVD to the utility partition (on the HDD). Think of it as an on demand install of Halo 3 to some scratch space on the HDD. Halo 3 doesn’t actually know where it’s running from, so it always assumes it’s running from a DVD. This is an unfortunate consequence of new features (namely, install to HDD) being added to the Xbox 360 after Halo 3 shipped. And as a result, it means that even if Halo 3 is already installed to the HDD, it will still copy maps to the utility partition.

Basically, it's having to read and write to the hard drive at the same time, as opposed to reading from the DVD drive and writing to the hard drive.  It all makes sense now, doesn't it?  Next time you're up for a little Co-Op Master Chief action, pop in the DVD and call it good.  And hope your 360 doesn't take off into the atmosphere.

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