The Xbox 360, a legendary console in more ways than one, was first launched on this day 20 years ago, going on to cement itself as the pinnacle of gaming (at least for a while). It spawned countless titles, good and bad, so what games are your favorites?
On a personal note, the 360 came to me late. I first laid hands on the thing around 2014, when my older brother, who was a big fan of Xbox, bought one for cheap off a dude wanting to divest it, probably in favor of the newly released PlayStation 4. A lot of hardware in my corner of the world came late, and I was stuck with a PS2 for years longer than my peers across the Pond (or in other parts of Europe, for that matter).
What I did have at all times that was up to snuff was a PC. There hadn’t been a major release on PC that I missed, and I played and enjoyed tons of games on my home computer (that eventually broke down and saw me going to my grandma’s to use hers to run WarCraft 3 on Garena for 10 hours a day). In any discussion about childhood gaming, I’d have to stick to PC, though I do have a couple of games that I believe marked my Xbox journey significantly.
These were PES 2013, Konami’s soccer game, and Black Ops 2.
The former is something my pals and I played religiously at the time, spending ungodly hours competing on the field to see who’s best, which usually turned out to be the luckiest rather than the more skillful. It was a fast-paced, easy-to-play game that could be taken up by literally anyone, lending itself perfectly to PES parties where even those who’ve never seen a controller could participate.
Black Ops 2, on the other hand, was a different beast. It’s probably the only game I actually completed on the 360, having never been a fan of controllers in FPS games. Being a PC kid from day one, I grew up playing Modern Warfare (2007) on a mouse and keyboard, as I did with every other CoD game from United Offensive to this very day. So it was a daunting experience, but one that I remember fondly, and will forever do so.
Where BO2 stood out for me was when a friend and I discovered Zombies. It was a cracked Xbox that played pirated versions of games, so we only had the base few Zombies maps to play, like Farm and Town, but that was enough for us. We spent an unhealthy amount of time on BO2 Zombies, and we did, occasionally, put that controller-shooter skill to use in Modern Warfare 3, where we’d duke it out on Dome to see who’d mastered this new way to play better.
I’m a late adopter of the Xbox 360 era, someone who came in just as the lights were turned on at the party. Everyone was leaving, and I was grasping for that last bit of beer on the table. It’s still a memorable experience and a valuable addition to my gaming journey.
But I believe our readers, that is you, have a lot more to share about their Xbox 360 days. It’s a legendary console that is remembered to this very day, what with everyone always mentioning kids these days wouldn’t survive 360 MW2 and Halo 3.
So, what would be your favorite Xbox 360-era games? What marked the ancient days that have stuck with you all this time? It’s a major anniversary, and we should celebrate what made us into who we are as players, and probably even people.
