The library of games is excellent, ranging from Microsoft games to third party ones. Of course they were not all hits, but my earliest titles were excellent ones, ranging from Fear, to Condemned to Gears of War. Then came the sports titles and those mixed with online play had me hooked. Achievements were awesome - some games in the past had sort of mini-achievements, but never something global like this. A sort of virtual badge of honor your friends could see.
I hardly ever use the D-pad, and this system's controller feels great in my hands. I had come from using a Playstation 2 before buying the Xbox 360, and the Playstation 2 controllers broke on me fairly regularly.
I played through about 9/10 of Gears of War, and one of my buddies from work hopped right in to do co-op and we beat the game together one night. I had Saturday afternoons with co-workers where 5-15 of us would get together and play Modern Warfare 2. The collection of downloadable games was awesome - everything from Limbo, to Monday Night Combat, to Castle Crashers...
The hardware proved somewhat suspect after awhile though. I was the last of my friends to get a Red Ring of Death, but got it I did. I sent it into Microsoft and it was fixed for free after I had owned the system for a bit over 2 years, but then another problem presented itself and I was looking at about $150 to fix it. Disappointing.
Also, my friends seemed to be migrating off of the 360 to the PS3. My son wanted to play online games like Castle Crashers or Halo: Reach - but he would need a gold account. The idea of having to spend $50 a month to play online with friends was a bit rough for me, but then I realized how it cramped family play online - if you weren't willing to spend a good chunk of money.
The account management was handled very well. I liked how multiple people could log in with their actual accounts at a time for some local co-op, and how saved data files were kept separate from those of other login accounts.
The lack of wireless internet? That's been a bit more of a hassle - only one of my 360's is online due to this. The newer models are more reliable - but they are also very loud. My wife compares it to a coffee pot brewing - from the other room.
To my mind, there's been more good than bad. I've played a lot of games, and I still have some to go. you won't see Modern Warfare 2 show up on this list, even though some of my best 360 memories are of that game. I now own it for the PS3 - for reasons I will explain in my next and last post on this topic.
Favorite three games from this system:
- Halo: Reach
- Mass Effect
- Gears of War
Pros:
- Great audio and video really helped me 'leap' into this generation of games.
- Account management with file saves and local co-op is the best of all systems
- Excellent collection of games & had achievements from the start to go with them
Cons:
- Hardware certainly had its share of failings
- Online play requires you to pay
- Lack of built-in wireless
I don't know if I have ever said it, but I purchased a Xbox 360 the day it released...then promptly sold it on Ebay!
ReplyDeleteLast generation, the original Xbox become my most played system, and it was the last system I purchased last generation. This generation though, due to the higher costs of the consoles, I still haven't purchased a 360 and haven't seen a game that is a "must have" for me on the system yet...and I'm just incredibly cheap!
A friend of mine had a xbox and then a 360 until the RROD got him too. He was big into madden though we usually stuck to fighting games.
ReplyDeleteI am impressed with the 360, but overall I'm too cheap for the online component. (though I do prefer the 360's controller from the little time I messed with a ps3 dual shock)
At any rate I doubt I'll get a 360 at this point. Going to try and wait until we have more facts about the Wii U before I think about a ps3.
@Coffee - LOL! See, I totally missed the original Xbox - I had a PS2 and my funds were much, much tighter during the last generation of games. All that extra work stress = more play money I guess. This was my first of the current-gen consoles because it's what most of my friends and co-workers had at the time, but I think you make a good point in that most of the best games for the ps3 and 360 are available for both systems so it makes it less like you 'have to have' a 360 to play some of the best titles out there (though some of the ones I really enjoy a lot like Halo you can't get around that).
ReplyDelete@Robert - I would agree that the 360 has had my favorite overall controller. I know a lot of people don't like the d-pad on it, but I almost never use it for anything - I'm almost all analog stick. The buttons and sticks have held up better on my 360 controllers than any other system - ever. I've been playing through a lot of console generations and this is the first time I've had a console I never had to replace a controller for (though in fairness, the Wii has held up well too - the only one I had to replace was one dropped on a hard floor that broke - *eyes his kids*)
Controllers: one of the hidden costs of gaming.. :) (along with power consumption and those pesky cables and vga converter boxes)
ReplyDeleteI'm keeping my fingers crossed on controllers as kid 1 gets a bit older. (along with the wiimote protective shell)
So far the 360 dpad hasn't been all that bad, but I do agree that it's not a good design. I'll just get a Hori if it becomes that much of a problem. Lately I've been using it with the analog sticks for PC gaming and it's been great. (super meatboy, edge, limbo, vvvvvv, bit trip runner, gish, trine)