Goodbye and Thank You.

2005 was the year of dreams for many, the Xbox 360 would finally launch. Not for me though, no, my year of dreams wasn't until 2006 and it only started in March....

I first encountered gaming on RIGHTEOUS' PS2, playing the likes of NFS:Underground and Prince of Persia. I enjoyed playing the games but never got much opportunity to play for continuous amounts of time doing so but come March 2006, oh how that was going to change! If you haven't already guessed, I got a Xbox 360 for my birthday! My first ever games console I had owned. I had played one before and was amazed by how good the games were on it but it wasn't until I had my own that I realised its power.


My first Xbox 360.

The Xbox 360 wasn't the perfect system by any means (and still isn't) but it was/is a great system and that is why I, along with many others have stuck with it among the years. 8 years the console has been out, I have had one for 7 years. Sure they have broken along the way, 2 RROD and an upgrade later and where am I now? a 250GB Slim model. 250GB. When the console first came out the biggest hard drive you could get was 20GB. This shows you how games have adapted with the console and Microsoft have realised this and adapted the different models throughout the years, including said Slim model. This was introduced to reduce noise, improve reliability and to add a few features which maybe should have been part of the original consoles. Microsoft learned from their mistakes and having corrected themselves have also benefited greatly from it.

Thats not to say it has only been Microsoft that has moulded the games to what they are now compared to what they were like at the end of the PS2 and Xbox's life cycle. The PS3 was a little bit late to the then 'Next-gen' party but hey, better late then never. The PS3's failures benefited the Xbox 360 massively, not only were developers choosing it as the main console to develop for, consumers were choosing it over the PS3 and there both affected each other. It was only until the PS3 exclusive games like Uncharted came out did you see what the PS3 could do and how the competition between the PS3 and Xbox 360 would make the games of then, now and the future better for everyone.

Right now, back to 360. Throughout the years games have come and gone, XBL experiments have been done and new hardware has been released, some even by Microsoft themselves but I'll get into that in a bit. This generation we saw what was the 'true' beginning for online multiplayer gaming. This was all due to Xbox Live. Xbox Live was released back in 2002 on the original Xbox but never really took off. The Xbox 360 however took it off and nobody has looked back since. the introduction of multiplayer matchmaking was put back in 2004 on Halo 2 on the original Xbox but was allowed to be played on the Xbox 360, this in it self helped XBL take off as much as it did as it gave people that one iconic game from launch, online with people all over the world. For me though, the one game that took the concept of online gaming over XBL and turned things on its head (for FPS' anyway) was Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. That game for me, is the greatest game ever released on Xbox 360 and PS3 that I have played, and I've played a lot of games. It changed so much with the way you played whilst keeping it familiar that it kept people coming back time after time and the same formula is still there 6 years later and doing the same thing. No game in my eyes has managed to do that again on any platform and potentially never will, that is how highly I regard CoD4 in my games I have played.


The greatest game to ever be created, in my eyes.

Thats not to say though that all games on the Xbox 360 have been great, oh no! Rogue Warrior, Avatar, Turning Point, Amy, Lost, Hour of Victory, Vampire Rain, yeah you get the point. Sometimes though its these games that have made companies realise what people like and dislike so maybe these games have actually helped the gaming industry. Oh yeah, 99.9% of games based on movies... no. Just stay away, the only decent ones are Open Season and Toy Story 3. The others are hideous disasters that some don't even deserve to be named or allowed to go near such a console as the Xbox 360. Then CoD4 isn't the only great/good game either. The Gears of War series, the Forza Motorsport series, the Halo series, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Battlefield 3, Far Cry 3, Grand theft Auto 4 and 5. All great games, not all exclusive but all capable of being played on the Xbox 360 and all extremely enjoyable at that!

Entertainment though has changed over the years and Microsoft, credit to them have changed the Xbox 360's UI to accommodate to it. The slides that were the 'dashboard' at the beginning of its already 8 year life cycle have long gone. Now it is the 'Metro' tiles that cover our screen. This is a much simpler UI to use and is cleaner to look at but can be unnecessarily slow at times and it is at these points where it is in fact disappointing that you can't decide what type of dashboard you have set to be on but it is understandable nonetheless. Movie streaming and TV on demand has become huge in recent years which is why Microsoft (along with Sony too) decided to release apps to be able to use the likes of Netflix, Lovefilm Instant (sadly now non-existent) and the BBC iPlayer. All were hugely successful and have meant that the apps being on the console have meant that people have actually bought it purely for them. These apps have been instrumental to the consoles success over the most recent years and are what have kept in on top of the opposition despite the heavy competition.

What made/makes the Xbox 360 such a great console is the fact that when I turn it on it automatically connects me to XBL and allows me to chat to my friends, no matter what game they are playing, movie they are watching, no matter where they are in the world, I am able to connect with them and have a fun time. All that for a year for the fraction of the cost for a week trip to see them and do almost exactly what I would do over XBL anyway. Xbox Live is such a connected service that it is the only service on console that offers this, not even Sony can offer all of the faeatures named above, that is how good it is. Without XBL, I wouldn't know any of you guys, wouldn't be typing this post right now, wouldn't have just played BF3 for the last time online on current gen consoles with Willow. A lot of my friends and the people that I interact with on a daily basis would as far as I would be concerned, be non-existent. That is why I love Xbox Live.

Now this may seem all Xbox, Xbox, Xbox. It is. That's not to say however that I hate the PS3. Not by any means, I think it's a great system, I have owned one for 2 years before selling it to buy games for my Xbox. I played PS3 more than Xbox 360 for over a year and never seemed to regret it until I came back and played Xbox again and realised how much I was missing with not having played it in so long. It was after just an hour of playing Xbox again that I decided to sell my PS3. That's all it took for me to realise that I prefer to play Xbox. I feel as if the services is better (although it does cost), the games seem of higher standard (the multi-platform ones anyway) on Xbox and I prefer the Xbox controller over the PS3 controller.


All thumbs up for the PS3 too!

If I'm honest, I've not always loved my Xbox. I blame the RROD for that. No matter how many times I got the RROD I would have stuck by the Xbox 360 without hesitation (and I know people who have done that, 15 times). It didn't affect my decision to what console I was to buy or play, it was simple, Xbox 360. The RROD wasn't why I went to play PS3 though, I wanted to meet new people online and see what I could learn and do on PS3 that I couldn't on Xbox. Turns out its what cant I do on PS3 that I can on Xbox. Again, not to say I hate the PS3 and Sony. I think its a great system and if you were to give me £200 to go and buy a brand new PS3 and a game or 2 then I would happily oblige and play it a lot. I do think the PS3 is an extremely good system, just that the Xbox 360 is the superior console.

Looking back on the last 7 years of my gaming life, it's been good mainly. Sometimes inspiring, sometimes just god damn awful but nonetheless I have loved almost every second in which I have played of my Xbox 360, of Xbox Live, of games with my friends then and now. Going from the beginning, playing single player only games in my room, to playing the occasional night with people (including some of you) when T360UK was still a thing, to the games with you when T360UK stopped being a thing and to now. We are all still here, playing fairly regularly with each other and enjoying the moments where we are. This is exactly why for me the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live service for this current generation of consoles was perfect. Unbeatable.

Thank you very much Xbox 360, we've had some great memories and some bad ones too but above all else, you've been great no matter what. You shall be missed, I wish you all the best. My first console, most definitely my most memorable.

Excellent xpose mate. pretty much says what we are all feeling I think.

Maybe with the new gen coming out we could maybe try to get some kind of active gaming community thriving again.

i was a latecomer to the 360 as i didnt get it till 2009!

i had been gaming on a ps3 which i purchased at launch when i got back into console gaming.

i used to work with The old Samurai (aka Retrorudimental) and he kept telling me what i was missing with the chat system etc. It never bothered me till one day at his house he got me online with some lads from work and i realised how much better it was to interact with others.

my ps3 bascally went into a box and has hardly been out since, my 360 has become the sole console i buy for and i have really enjoyed using it.

i may not buy many big name, release day games (a couple a year maybe) but the ones i do i play the hell out of.

ive got a few months left with my 360 before the One arrives, i will be hammering through some games to try and complete them before that but i suspect my 360 might stay plugged in even when the One is here.

I really enjoyed reading this, its a good send off for the Xbox 360  

It was not the first online console (Dreamcast was online) but it was the first system to have a proper set up for online. I played a PS2 game online and it was clunky to say the least, and at the time of Dreamcast the infrastructure was not really in place.

360 made it easier by having a user profile and making all games work to the same system. The original Xbox had Live but it was optional for that system so was only supported on various games not all.

Since 360 was launched as you have mentioned Kamikaze things have changed and the ability to update the software in 360 meant it could change with the times and also prolonged its lifespan because of that.

I don't expect the new systems to be as revolutionary as the 360 as that console got many things right or improved over the years so they don't need to make massive changes. They will be an evolution of the 360 / PS3

I consider this generation ending one of the finest we have had in my life time. SNES vs Megadrive was the only one as good as we had 2 strong competitors which is good for business.
I look back at the people / friends I have met online either who I spoke to online / forums or actually met on the T360UK outing. The reality is I would not have met any of you without the 360. This generation really was the Game changer!

So I just potentially played my last ever online game on Xbox 360 with Willow on BF3. It was a rather sad moment but it showed in its last moments what it was all about, connecting people and without it being so social I would have not been playing with Willow tonight!

Thanks for all the games boys, will see you all on next gen!

ive probably already played my last night online with you lads.....

im up at 3am uk time for work till Wednesday and then switching onto 2 night shifts so i guess i will see you on the One (eventually!)

So I just packed my Xbox 360 up. Sad moment but it is for the best!

The last ever moment for me on current gen was playing FIFA with RIGHTEOUS and unfortunately it ended in a penalty shoot out defeat Plenty of time to make up for it in the coming years though!

can we have some pics of you boxing the system up!

Do you recon a lot of people are trading in current consoles? seems like a few people I know are.
These new consoles will have to be amazing to top this generation which IS amazing. Such change over 1 generation, I don't think we will see the same amount of change in one generation again

Im afraid it is already done and the box taken downstairs! But, you can have this final picture I took of it in all its dusty environment!



You are right Willow, it really is going to take a top system with some amazing games and experiences to be able to beat this gen of consoles! Let's just hope that both of them can do that!