Xbox 360 has been given it's death sentence. My thoughts and experience on Xbox 360

The original console looked best.

So Xbox 360 will be discontinued later this year. Every video game blogger, journalist and anyone who's ever picked up a Xbox 360 controller has been dumping their thoughts online... so why not join the herd for once huh?

I got my first of many Xbox 360's back in 2006 with Dead or Alive 4 and Dead Rising, months before getting the superior Wii(Ooh poking the bear early!). When I say first of many, I really mean it. I have gone through 4 OG model Xbox 360's before I got an Arcade model with the HDMI port. So I went through 4 Red Ringed Xbox 360's for a couple years, like most Xbox 360 owners.

Now the console was awesome in design(unlike the S and E models) because it still looked like a gaming console, but could also blend in with an entertainment unit(assuming you're into that kinda thing). The thing is loud(not Dreamcast loud, but loud enough) and overheats in the summer(at least the original models did) and worked better standing up over laying on it's side. I used a 20GB hard drive for many years until I started playing Final Fantasy XI Online and upgraded to the 120GB one I still have today. I do love the controllers for the Xbox 360 too. Sure they aren't the best(Gamecube is best to me), but they worked well and were perfect for the games that Xbox 360 was known for.

The Xbox 360 is where I did most of my online gaming over the years... and because of it I avoid playing online for the most part. The community I encountered online when playing on Xbox Live were the most foul mouthed, racist, ignorant and unfair group of people I've ever played with or against. Now there were plenty of people who were nice and I enjoyed playing with, but they were far and few between unfortunately. I ended up giving up my XBL Gold after Halo 4 came out because I got fed up with it. I hardly played games online anyway and preferred the single player experience overall.

As for the games, they were the weakest part of the console sadly. The exclusives for Microsoft's Xbox were more plentiful vs the Xbox 360, so it's exclusive library was sparse. I loved a few of the exclusives like Lost Odyssey, Dead or Alive 4, Blue Dragon, Halo Reach, Halo ODST, Tales of Vesperia and Alan Wake... but there were so little made that as the years went on I just played the Xbox 360 less and less in favour of the Wii and PS3. Now Xbox 360 did have one advantage most of the time... better builds of games! Throughout the life of the Xbox 360, many games performed or looked better on 360 over the PS3 and I always bought the version that worked best. This got less and less as developers worked out how to program for PS3 however.

Now as for my Xbox 360 today? I haven't turned it on since Tomb Raider was a new release and was the last game I have played on it. It's not that I don't love my Xbox 360, it's just new games keep coming out on Wii U and PS4 and I just haven't had the urge to go back and play my unfinished games. It's just sitting under a dust cover for now, but it will get another day in the sun if more and more online only games get released and I have more free time.

So that's my thoughts on the Xbox 360. It wasn't a bad console at all and I had fun with it every now and then. It was the go to online multiplayer console and had a library of games it shared mostly with PS3. I don't regret owning a Xbox 360, but it is depressing how the PS3 and Wii managed to be more appealing to me. Now will I ever get an Xbox One? Not until it has full 360 backwards compatibility with the games I own and it has a game that finally makes me want it. I hope when the Xbox 360 becomes a retro gaming console, it is remembered fondly.