Forum Roundtable: One Year of 360

Last December everyone was excited about the 360 and a high percentage of you opted to buy it at launch. One year and a lot of hype later, has the 360 has been a success? Will you be sticking with Microsoft when Nintendo and Sony release their consoles and what have been your most memerable 360 gaming moments? Our forum speaks.

CubeChis

I picked up my 360 back in January, and this was down purely to the appeal of Xbox Live. Halo 2 and other online titles on the original Xbox made this an instant no-brainer. Since then Halo 2 has still reigned supremacy over my Xbox Live gaming, but other such 360 specific gems like, Burnout, GRAW, Marble Blast, and even that old card game UNO, have brought many entertaining evenings.

As for other consoles, I think the Wii will provide me with something different and refreshing, which I am more than looking forward to, but as for the PS3, I think most of the experiences to be had there can be found on Microsoft’s console.

Wii and 360 for me. Bring on Halo 3 and Mario Galaxy.

bish

Yeah I heard about the Xbox 360 thing a while back. All this hype and talk about it being revolutionary. But then the delays and comparisons with other next gen consoles and it turned out it wasn’t as good as what they PR was claiming. No, wait… That was Sony PS3! Ouch.

Got my 360 earlier this year. Gaming has been dominated by Oblivion, racking up more than 100 hours of gameplay – which is scary. I’m glad I played it for four days straight without sleeping/eating/toiletting/speaking, otherwise it would have taken months…

Fable 2, Assassins Creed, Halo 3 FTW!

Nogert

When the Wii is out I’ll be sticking to the 360 aswell as playing the wii purely because I think it’s really only just starting for the 360 aswell. A bunch of games came out at launch but now alot of the ones we all saw back in 05 are being released. There are still much more to be had with the 360 exspecially with the relase of Halo 3, Microsoft don’t need to worry about a new console because Halo 3 will rebirth the 360 and make it feel so good again even if it has worn of by then, just remember when people got there hands on Halo 2 the Xbox definetly became number 1.

rokhed00

Nearly a year since release and to be honest there’s been nothing really special to speak of. Sure there’s been plenty of good games, GRAW, Oblivion and Dead Rising just to name a few, but nothing great or special. That’s all about to change though with the second generation of 360 games on the horizon, being lead by Gears of War. Microsoft has used this time to get a reasonable user base installed and the dawn of the 360s second generation of games has nicely coincided with the competitions debuts this generation. They’re in a strong position to face the arrival of the Wii and the PS3 and I for one won’t be deserting them. I’ll be picking up a Wii to go with it, although it has few titles that interest me, but the PS3 doesn’t have anything exclusive that puts it above the 360 really.

graco

In my opinion the Xbox 360 has given me something I was craving for, a proper home console which allows me to play games with my friends without any of us leaving our rooms. Yeah the Playstation 2 and GameCube had internet but it was nowhere near as good as the 360 has been to me. I love the idea of the Gamerpoints too as its taken the whole idea of rivalry between your friend to another level. You compete to be in the lead with points and I should know i’m competing against my best friends and although i’m currently in last it gives me more reason for replay value in a game. For example Tomb Raider was a okish game, it wasn’t brilliant but it was playable and without the Gamerpoints I would of only played it once or twice but i keep going back for more just to get those 1000 points.

Those were all good points but there have been some bad like the constant crashing of games and some connectivity issues in certain games (Splinter Cell for example). Putting these aside and concentrating on the good points i would gladly shell out again for the pleasure that the 360 has given me in the past 9 months of having it.

ibu

I remember getting my 360 at 6am on launch, I got the Premium pack with an additional wireless controller, PGR3 and PDZ:CE, It took me a day to finish PDZ and I was v.disappointed in the game tbh in the long run that is. It just didn’t have the magic that the original PD had. PGR3 I still play frequently to this day it truly is a brilliant game with plenty of come back for more value.

The 360 was the 2nd UK console I had got on launch after the GameCube a few years before… It had a better launch lineup and I followed the purchase of the console with the purchase of COD2 at xmas and FIFA 2006:RTWC which I quickly got rid of and traded for something else.

Overall I feel the 360 to be my favourite and most engrossing launch console that I have personally bought, although I really enjoyed the original Burnout and Luigi’s Mansion on the Cube. I loved the 360 launch and this showed in my initial 17hr games marathon on the console. with only food breaks in between.

So over the past year my console has given me excellent experiences whether running through seemingly neverending grassy valleys and over hills in Oblivion, I have helped win the war in COD2, I have done a donut in a F50GT scored a hatrick with Rooney for Manchester United, Infiltrated enemy hideouts as Sam Fisher, powerslided with the assistance of Nitrous around an entire track on Ridge Racer 6 and soon I will be Kerb Stomping innocent (well not innocent) victims in Gears of War… all in a lovely 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround via Hi Definition Visuals… I don’t think I have ever had it so good!!!

What a year!!!

Lloytron

I wasn’t going to get a 360 at all. I hardly played my Xbox and didn’t think MS had raised the game that much.

However I had this burning urge to play Perfect Dark Zero (I like it!) and PGR3, which coincided with me having a nice bit of wedge in my back pocket. So I bought one.

My first impressions were that is was OK. Not great, but OK. After a few hours of playing I started to explore the marketplace, and I have to say I was really impressed. The way they set up the maretplace was excellent. OK so it is a tool to fleece us from cash, but having demos and arcade games readily available to download, with no messing about, is an impressive feat.

6 months in my 360 died. I was not a happy bunny. The next day I was a happy bunny again as Game swapped it, no problem.

About 9 months in I started getting pissed off with it. I played it every day, but I mainly played the old arcade games, which defeated the whole point of buying a cutting edge console. Dead Rising dragged me out of that melancholy. I’d rate this as one of the best games on the machine, and even go so far as to put it in the top twenty games ever created. I *loved* playing this game so much it was unbelievable.

Now we are almost a year in, I am again pissed off with MS, but for a different reason – I’m skint. Gears of war, Phantasy Star Universe, Splinter Cell, Call Of Duty, Tony Hawks, Marvel Alliance, and the wireless headset all come out within a very short space of time. Bah humbug!

Ash

I think the first year of the 360 has been easy for microsoft, as they have not had much competition for the next generation war, it will start getting exciting next year when the console will start the battle to be top.

I was never tempted to buy a 360 when it was first released, and listening to people on here and other places, i am glad i did not invest as there have been some many problems, and most needed to be sent back to repair.

Next year i think the 360 will beat the PS3, as it is cheaper, has a much better online system, and has a soild userbase, like many people are saying they will own a Wii and a 360 giving the name Wii360, no one really mentions the PS3 too much.