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GAMES OF MY YEARS: XBOX 360

25/4/2016

10 Comments

 
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As you might've read, Microsoft has  stopped manufacturing new Xbox 360s.

With over 80 million sold worldwide over its 11-year lifespan, it remains the most successful console Microsoft has made to date.

I bought an HD flatscreen plasma TV the day my Xbox 360 arrived. It was purely for the Xbox 360, of course, and the most absurd expense - a couple of grand at least.

It's a real mark of how my priorities have shifted as I've gotten older, and life has settled down; I'd never spend that much on a thing anymore.

Looking back at it, I'm bewildered by how far technology has progressed across what feels like a heartbeat. 

That TV weighed about the same as a family car - and none of its guts were contained within the TV itself. ​Instead, it came with a separate, console-sized, box, which plugged into the screen. The crispness of the visuals were immediately obvious to me. Which was frustrating, as nobody else in the house could tell the difference between SD and HD. 

Regardless, my daughter ended up breaking the single HDMI port after a year or two. I found only one company willing to try and fix the set - apparently, it was a particularly complex model - which cost several hundred quid... Only to have it break again a month or so later.

The result was that my two grand HDTV remained SD for much of the time I had it. 

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ABOUT A BOY
Even early on, I was a 360 boy. It felt like proper future technology, rather than just another incremental continuation of the sort of things we'd already seen.

The controller was my favourite up until that point... I appreciated the friendliness of the Xbox Live interface... the graphics were noticeably better. 

Heck, my favourite game from the launch line-up was Peter Jackson's King Kong, believe it or not. I remember calling the kids in from the other room to look at some photorealistic puddles.

​Of the other games I picked up at launch, Project Gotham Racing was fine - though I've never been the biggest racing game fan, unless I can destroy the cars. Kameo I didn't much like - but it was the first game my youngest daughter ever obsessed over - and Perfect Dark Zero pretty much put a stake in the heart of that franchise. I recall describing the soulless graphics as looking like they'd been laminated. 

HATELESS
And yet, I didn't hate the 360. I could see the developers learning, getting to grips with the hardware, and I was to have my patience rewarded a year later. Call of Duty 3 was the game that made me truly love the Xbox 360. It was the first game to get me into playing online in a big way; some of my happiest gaming memories are of playing that game online with mates. Plus, it had good puddles.

Though Call of Duty 3 was multiformat, and its release coincided with the launch of the PlayStation 3, it took me a long while to pick up Sony's competitor. When I did, my loyalties remained with Microsoft.

I never liked the PS3 interface - I still don't much like what Sony has done with the PS4, but now that Microsoft has ballsed up its own Xbox Live front-end, it's every so slightly better. Plus, that PS3 controller - a stubborn holdover from earlier generations - couldn't wave a candle at the 360's joypad.

Somehow, the latent goodwill that Sony had built up with its two previous consoles had carried through to the PlayStation 3. Many I spoke to were firmly in the PS3 camp, and hated the 360. I think Microsoft managed to silence most of those critics over time, but it was an uphill battle against blind adherence.

Oddly, not even my one and only encounter with the Red Ring of Death - the 360's famous fault, which essentially killed the hardware - could dent my own loyalty. Indeed, I was impressed by the swiftness with which Microsoft replaced my machine. 

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MISS IT
​The Xbox 360 is probably only the second games machine of my adult life - the other being the Super NES - towards which I feel anything approaching affection.

​I had such good times with my 360. There were some perfect Saturday mornings playing Marble Blast with my youngest, and feeling a blossom of pride as she chose to play Kameo over watching Hannah Montana. 

And it got me through some of the worst times.

It was there when my marriage disintegrated once and for all. An escape into fantasy, on at least two of the most destabilising days of my life. It's no exaggeration to say that I honestly don't know what I would've done without it. A rock of stability and continuity as everything I'd clung to began to crumble beneath my fingers.

When my daughter and I found ourselves living in an unfamiliar home, it was once again the feel of holding that Xbox 360 pad in my hand which just about kept me grounded. An anchor in an uncertain ocean.

ALL THE SAME
It's fair to say that the current generation has yet to win me over. The Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are basically the same machine; their differences are in the software exclusives they offer, rather than the relative warmth of the face they greet you with.

Sadly, I don't know if I'll ever get that feeling again. With Sony hinting that the future of its gaming hardware will be pigeon-step hardware upgrades, rather than an all new format, maybe the days of pinning my loyalties to a piece of consumer technology are well and truly over.

The Xbox 360 and I went out on a high, though. The last game I ever played on it was Assassin's Creed: Black Flag - which has become one of my favourite games.

​It's ironic that a game set on the open seas would reach me at a point where I'd found the solid ground where I want to spend the rest of my life. Perhaps it was a message. I didn't need the 360 to anchor me anymore. Funny how things work out.

FROM THE ARCHIVE:
10 INTERESTING CONSOLE MODS
10 OFF-THE MARK CONSOLE CONCEPTS
MARCH OF THE CRAPSOLES: 10 CONSOLE KNOCK-OFFS
10 Comments
Retro Resolutiin link
25/4/2016 12:37:57 pm

Another great, and heartfelt, article Mr. B.

Sometimes a machine, rather than a specific game, becomes anchored in the memory to a specific time; it's odd really - I don't feel the same way about a specific stereo ('hi-fi'), only about certain albums...

I love the original Xbox, even though one set of memories tie it to some dark times, and a later set to much better days. I love my 360, although it was 2012 before I finally bought the machine.

Reply
Da5e
25/4/2016 12:53:42 pm

I too love the 360 unashamedly - it was the console of choice for us bullet hell enthusiasts, I've even got a Japanese console for the few region-locked shmup titles that were released. I bought an Xbox One not long after launch and got rid of it when I realised I was using it for Skype more than games.

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Keith
25/4/2016 01:02:54 pm

Interesting about the Xbox getting you through difficult times. I had a period in 2011-12 when virtually everything stable in my life totally collapsed. Playing Skyrim on the Xbox all day every day would probably have seemed like a symptom of something to an onlooker, but if I think about that period and not having that world to explore and hide in, I feel a bit dizzy and vertiginous. Genuinely don't know what would have happened if I'd been sat listening to depressing records instead

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Alastair
25/4/2016 01:39:54 pm

My own 360 is a reminder of a friend who went abroad and has probably settled enough to stay there forever.

But another friend's 360 was the one we used when we got together to multiplay Halo on one huge screen. That was probably the last time I'll get to do that, never mind replicate the drunken hilarity of late night MK64 with another batch of uni friends.

It's starting to die a little and I suppose that's OK, I need to move on a bit.

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Superbeast 360
25/4/2016 02:19:08 pm

I too was amazed at the "blind adherence" to Sony/PS3 in the face of what was a superior console and online service in the form of the 360/XBL.

I was especially amazed by those defending the awful joypad design (mainly the triggers) who still refused to accept that it was a poor design even when Sony effectively said "yeah that sucked, we have built Xbox-style triggers into the PS4 pad".

I've never understood that type of blind brand loyalty where someone will not only select but fight in defence of of an objectively inferior option purely due to the logo on the casing. It does appear to be a uniquely Sony problem in gaming as you don't tend to see quite as many Xbox aficionados defending the Xbox One in the face of the superior PS4.


I never really felt the same affection for the 360 as I did the PS1, SNES or even the original Xbox and can't put my finger on why. I'd guess that during the SNES/PS1 era, those consoles were doing 2D/3D far better than the computers I had in those days.

During the original Xbox days I went through a bad illness which left me off sick from work for four or five months and the Xbox kept me company through that tough time. That's why I have a soft spot for Halo and PGR. Even though the latest Halo was poor, I'd never consider not buying and playing through it as there is now something sentimental about it. Maybe sentimental isn't the word, maybe feeling that I "owe it something" isn't the right phrase either. I suppose it is some kind of "connection", a close bond formed during difficult times.

The 360 was always playing second fiddle to my PC - the latter being my preferred choice in the case of tri-platform games so I never really felt that enamoured with it despite having many a good time. One of my strongest lasting memories isn't the great time I had playing Red Dead Redemption but of feeling nauseous due to the multiple FPS games with large gun models and narrow fields of view I associate it with.

I actually have only fond memories of the PS3 due to owning two only for very brief periods - to play Wipeout and TLoU and selling the consoles almost immediately afterwards.

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Spiney O'Sullivan
26/4/2016 01:35:50 pm

I'm fairly sure console fanboys aren't a Sony-only thing. Though the hardcore Sony fanatics probably think the same about the Xbox fan base.

Anyway, the triggers were a slippery mess, but I actually always liked the way the PS1/2/3 pads sat in the hand. But then, I also found the N64 pad comfortable.

In all honesty, after the PS3 recovered from a disastrous start (which took a long while) the last gen consoles were basically the same bar a few exclusives. I was originally going to get a 360 because Rare were developing for that, but that desire kind of ended after Perfect Dark Zero flopped, and Uncharted looked really good. There wasn't a lot in it, really. Sometimes I think about picking up a £50 used 360 for the sake of Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts and the Fable games.

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The some of all fears
25/4/2016 03:08:27 pm

"And it got me through some the worst of times."

You missed an 'of' there. No, wait...the 'some' is unnecessary. I can't decide. You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?

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Mr Biffo
25/4/2016 03:27:30 pm

Yes. I love being pulled up on my stupidity.

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Dangerous Dave
26/4/2016 10:30:29 am

That's our Mr Biff.

Damon link
25/4/2016 05:52:41 pm

Once again you've hit close to home for me... I tend to play more games the more depressed I am... which is a bad thing since since through my later high school years and college I was doing well and my 'return' to gaming so to speak is rough given the only franchise I followed had what I consider it's worst entry while I was following no other games.

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