There’s always this conception of there being a console war and PC master race battle against consoles, but for me I’ve always embraced each platform in their own way. I have a just over average gaming PC setup, an Xbox One and PlayStation 4, so by no means am I biased when it comes to favouring one of the other. I tend to buy PC only games, new titles on Xbox One and PS4 exclusives, so there’s a nice mix of IPs in there for me to play. But if I was asked which is my all time favourite, I would have to say it’s my Xbox.
You’re probably wondering why after the teething problems of the Xbox One when it launched and the lack of great new exclusives these days, but for me buying the original Xbox brand new, 15 years old was where it was at for me. It was the first console that introduced me to online multiplayer. The days of local couch co-op on games like Conflict Desert Storm were gone and with that I left a lot of real life gaming buddies behind, but gained a whole lot more online.
I remember the first day I got my original Xbox, when my dad came home with console off a colleague from work, as he bought the console brand new for £90 plus 6 games, one of them being Rainbow Six 3, a game that completely changed my outlook on first person shooters. I’ll admit a lot of my time was still spent playing local co-op with my dad mainly and a few school friends, but it was the power of the console that bought us all together. We’d go to school talking about epic moments on games from the night before and it’s that ever-lasting memory of the Xbox brand that has stayed with me.
Even when I first got my Xbox 360 with one game (Perfect Dark Zero), I had a month free of Gold membership and played the game to death every night, solidly for 1 month. I gained an old time friend who is still on my list today, as well as a huge connection of people to play with on the game, who would always host custom private matches or just drop you an invite to a gaming session one evening. Sadly, for some reason I held off on renewing my membership and actually disappeared from the online world for a whole year to concentrate on school work, but as soon as I returned I realised what I had missed dearly.
I also built on my gaming library with Call of Duty 2, Rainbow Six Vegas and Halo 3 being some of the biggest games gaining my interest. Obviously there was Call of Duty 4, where I dabbled in being more competitive than anything and gained a lot of friends from this title too. It was these connections that made the Xbox 360 so iconic and such a great memory to me. I wouldn’t change the amount of time I played for, more often than not I could get home at 4pm and play right up until 11pm every night. Obsessive and probably not healthy for me, but some of the best times I’ve ever had with such good people.
Then came the Xbox One, it was a console of promise, delivering better visuals and better detailed games. This opened up to be similar to PC gaming, with the chance for developers to make bigger open worlds for exploration and just general better games. It may have launched with a number of issues and criticism, but I feel that the Xbox One has finally found its feet and enjoying a successful spell of sales, particularly as we near Christmas and the Slim model is now available. I think the biggest exciting prospect for Xbox is Scorpio, the idea of a PC spec under a console mould sounds like a gamer’s dream. I know it’s something I’ve dreamed of for some time and can’t wait to save my pennies up for it. Obviously I’m going to need a new TV for it too though sadly.
What were your best gaming memories on Xbox throughout the past 15 years? Let us know down in the comments.