On top of last night’s Xbox announcements at the E3 tradeshow Microsoft has just revealed first pics of the New Xbox Experience.

It all looks rather more, y’know, mainstream than the current/soon-to-be-outmoded Xbox LIVE, don’t you think? Kind of like a dumbed down but slightly jollier rendition of Microsoft’s Vista operating system with an uncluttered presentation and bold menu items you can cycle through. However, all that pre-announcement chatter about a Minority Report-style interface now seems rather overblown.

Elsewhere we get a first glimpse at the Netflix movie menu (which doesn’t apply to us – boo!), and the much-discussed avatar system. These little fellers seem to be more sophisticated than their Mii counterparts in terms of options to tweak bodily features, expressions and clothing etc – we’re loving the fact that shirts can be tucked in too! How these cheery dudes integrate within and outside of the Xbox LIVE environment remains to be seen, though.

So there it all is. Slicker and more professional-looking than the current blade-based system? Probably. But better? Well, we’ll just have to see about that...