Xbox 360 at 15 Thoughts

I'm not big into Microsoft's home consoles like I am with their computers. But I do have some good memories of playing the Xbox 360 for a good seven years or so. It was a push to a new generation when it came out around the end of November 2005. Easy to develop games for, smoother playability, lots of digital stuff. You get the good with the bad that includes the Red Ring of Death, scratched discs, squandering what they had in 2010. However, you can't deny it being a great system to have.

My first experience with it was in 2009. I was not too familiar with the Xbox brand. My older brother had an original Xbox, but didn't play it except once or twice. I do remember commercials for 360 within the first couple years, especially the Game Fuel Mountain Dew ads and Halo 3.That game was the first title I experienced on 360 with the multiplayer via system link. Seven of us played and I was not good. About a year later, my younger brother and myself get our own 360. Get a handful of titles, including some Call of Duty games and GTA IV, 2010 was pretty good.

With being away at college, my opportunities of playing it were on specific weekends I came home for a couple years. Played a lot of The Simpsons Game, Dead Rising, Call of Duty single player from Modern Warfare to Black Ops. Little bit of Forza. Played a lot of GTA IV for about six months going through the single player. Invested until 2016 into other games, especially when I got my own 360 in 2014. Fallout, The Orange Box, Sonic Unleashed and many more. I haven't played much of it since due to playing more PlayStation 3 and 4, but it was still a great experience.

You look at it, and it paved the way for online being what it is with its pros and cons. Extra content, various apps, multiple things. But I do wonder if it could have kept the same pace from 2011 to 2015/16 like it did its first five years and continued with bringing big exclusives of their own. It's still hard to believe that it has reached 15 years old. And it still gets support from Microsoft despite no one making titles for it since 2017. The legacy will still go on and people have not given up on it being their main machine. Still plenty of practical use for a lot of ways besides gaming.