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The ROAST of the XBOX 360

(And other 7th-Gen gaming consoles)

In 2005 Microsoft released the Xbox 360. You might remember them from such products as the Windows operating system (Which is a bit "meh" btw...) and the old Xbox. They also had that Halo game, but I don't know about it other than the few minutes of Halo 3 that I played once.

But to call the then-new Xbox an improvement over the old version was wishful thinking. It's BAD. Actually, calling it "bad" is ANOTHER understatement, it can best be described as a "hot mess". And here were the problems... that probably had not much effect on user experience.

1. Introduction/Features

I had an XBOX when I was younger. I don't remember it giving me or my family any problems. I was probably too young to percieve the whole "XBOX Good, Playstation Bad" dillema of the late-aughts. When I finally got my unit I suddenly started hearing about all the problems that plagued the original model.

First is the games. The old version mostly had shooting games and action-adventure titles such as Bioshock and Devil May Cry 4. Later when the Kinect camera came out they released a bunch of family friendly games that used the camera such as Kinect Sports. But the Kinect wasn't all great since there were concerns that it could listen in on your house even if your XBOX was turned off. Reminds me of these "smart" home appliances that lots of people people have nowadays (rhymes with "Boogle Bone")

It also supported playback of the HD-DVD format. But no one uses HD-DVD anymore since it lost to Blu-Ray.

2. Online Connectivity

You need to pay for the XBOX Live service to play online, either with friends or with the XBOX community. As you can guess I don't have that kind of money. Rent in my area is ~$1500/month. Groceries are close to $50/week. Add in bills and student debt and there's no way that your target audience will shell out the $19.99/month required for an XBOX Live Gold membership.

However, I'm being a bit biased towards myself here. Game companies are in the business of making money. Because of this the subscription model of XBOX Live is here to stay. What are they gonna do, sell ad space on a free version of XBL? Imagine seeing commercials while playing Gears of War online.

The Wii and Nintendo DS online service was free. But you did need a friend code. And you can't even chat with them! The Playstation's PSN is free and comes WITH communitation features. Although they later had a paid service known as PlayStation Plus, but users could still use the free option.

3. The RED RING OF DEATH

Last but not least, there was the infamous "Red Ring of Death". Red Ring is where your XBOX completely craps out and shows a red ring on the power indicator, making your console useless. My friend had a box but never got Red Ring. Despite his luck I always feared that it would give out on him at any given moment.

Even when I got the XBOX a few years later, I never had these problems. Guess I also lucked out. Although this was just a few months before the Slim model with the Kinect camera came out, so the device was much improved.

The Final Verdict

I give the XBOX 360 a 5 out of 10.

Although I had good memories with the thing, you can't deny that the hardware itself was BAD. The PlayStation 3 seemed to fix all the problems that Microsoft left in. I should have went for that console instead of the flaming pile of garbage that is the XBOX 360. But i'm an adult now so I can't. Apparently "wishing for" a game or game system is "childish" and not "age-appropriate". What am I supposed to do then, just go out and buy one whenever the hell I want?


Oh wait...


Remember, boys and girls:

Microsoft gives you Windows,

Linux gives you the WHOLE HOUSE.


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