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The upcoming Xbox Live Experience will give 360 users the option to install games to their hard drives, potentially cutting down on load times and providing a better gameplay experience. Eurogamer has done some testing to see just how well this all works:

The Orange Box

Install Size: 4.7GB

Yes, you read that correctly. Despite featuring five different games in one phenomenal package, The Orange Box in its entirety fills only 4.7GB of the theoretical 6.8GB limit imposed by an Xbox 360-formatted dual-layer DVD. It’s also one of the few games where performance is hugely improved by the installation. The measurements below speak for themselves; on all of the major Half-Life 2 games, loading times are often twice as fast, while the lighter content additions to the Orange Box feature far fewer benefits.

The Orange Box goes about its business in a decidedly old-skool manner. There’s nothing in the way of on-the-fly geometry or texture streaming going on – Valve opted for discrete loading of each section of gameplay as and when it is needed, and that kind of PC-styled approach clearly favors the hard disk installation. In-game performance is totally identical as a result, too.

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