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[Mojovonio]

Even though I had to suffer a 360 meltdown and had to deal with horrid customer service, i still had a great year with it.

The first day I got it, I was at work, so I had to wait till I got home to play it. I got PD:Z, Kameo and condemmed.

Instead of playing at home, I went to my buddies house and played PD:Z. The first time seeing it, I was quite impressed. It wasn't till I later got home and beat the game that I realzied how underwhelming it actuallly was. Played it online every once and a while, and thats where the game shone. Online was a blast.

I then migrated into Kameo, again, I was really impressed with the graphics. I beat the game in a week and left quite satisfied.

Then I went into Condemmed and realzied it was the best survival horror game I had ever played.

I then went and got pretty much every arcade title and played the hell out of them.

So yeah, i had a great year.

 

[goldenpp72]

Amazing, with some lows here and there (360 blowing up, some big droughts), but still very much worth it.

 

[Mrbob]

System has stayed strong (knock on wood), so I haven't had any hardware problems.

Software support has been solid for the system. Having said that, there really hasn't been a huge breakout title so far beyond Dead Rising so I would say my current opinion of available software is relatively mediocre. Especially with Madden tanking on 360 it has soured my outlook for the entire lineup at the moment. Now from November onward things are looking good, and 2007 is looking excellent for the system and finally justifying the purchase I made a year ago.

I'm extremely disappointed with the lack of software output from MS. They need to be the ones on the ball and start pushing the system but right now I would give them a D+ in how they are handling the system first party wise. I guess this will be rectified somewhat in 2007 but we shall see.

 

[Agent Icebeezy]

Over the course of a year, I've purchased more than 30 games at retail. 18 XBLA games and I have a ton of games preordered. Tons of fun.

 

[op_ivy]

really really great. pgr3, graw, and dead rising have been stellar early titles, and i always had halo 2 to fall back on!

oh, then it crapped out on me.

 

[Mojovonio]

also, this was my first launch console, so it was quite exciting getting it home.

 

[careksims]

I got it this Feb and it still hasn't crapped on me (knock on wood). I really enjoy the Marketplace stuff and XBLA. Games like Graw, Dead Rising, Oblivion make it a blast to play. I thank the MS gods that they had BC for Halo 1,2, and Battlefront 2. That's all I needed for BC and I love it. Bring on the 360 goodness for November!

 

[Dr. Kitty Muffins]

Sounds like you guys need:

 

[dante786]

Very positive. I've loved my 360, though I was pretty pissed when it crapped out on me.....twice. Overall though I'm happy with it, tons of titles I've enjoyed, especially Oblivion and Dead Rising, the former being one of my fav all time games. Mostly I'm happy about the stable of 360 games coming out this fall and especially next year, but yeah, its been pretty good.

 

[GashPrex]

been a good year, lots of quality stuff - and love the online stuff

 

[vumpler]

Eh I waited 14 hours outside in front of Bestbuy with Bonsevan (another gaffer) and in all reality I am not incredibly impressed. I come from a huge PC gamer background and none of the FPS's out so far for the 360 are worth a penny. Everything has been short changed. Madden at release was complete crap, nba 2k6 was probably the best game out at launch. But then we had to wait forever for oblivion and that game was decent until you get to the last quest and on everyones game it locks up and dies. Still no patch for that one. XBLA is alright. I've bought about 9 of the games and none have given me more than 2 hours worth of play other than texas hold em'. Madden this year is pretty solid as well as nba 2k7. It seems like those 2 games are the only truely solid fun games and thats just because of XBL.

I would say its been pretty crappy waiting almost a year and still none of the major games have been released. Yeah the 360 has had time to get out in the hands of others before the ps3 but hell there haven't been any amazing games in those people's hands. So for the ones that did wait for the PS3 they now actually have a good choice. Especially with the 90nm proc's being released in the near future.

I say to this point a disappointment to say the least. Lets run this thread next year and I have a feeling my opinion will be vastly changed.

 

[PhatSaqs]

XBL + Oblivion + Saints Row + GRAW + XBLA + Demos = very happy gamester in me.

 

[open_mouth_]

I've owned the system for about 7 months now and I've enjoyed it quite a bit. There hasn't been any real "killer app" system seller for me personally (like Halo, God of War, RE4, etc. are) but there've been a *ton* of really fun stuff that has made it more than worth while.

Geometry Wars was a fun little challenge. Dead Rising is great fun so far as is NBA 2K7. Call of Duty 2 and Condemned were fun little gems in the single player. PGR3 was played quite a bit as well. I tried most of the other games and had fun with a few of the rest. Fight Night was extremely fun for a few weeks against friends. One of the best things about the system has been the marketplace downloads of demos and trailers, though. I spent lots of time with that content, from arcade stuff to the Lost Planet and Table Tennis demos. What I'm more excited about is that year 2 looks like it's going to be even better.

edit: oh yeah, how could I forget the sweetness that was GRAW

 

[LakeEarth]

Big big fan of Live Arcade, if you didn't count Oblivion I've probably spent more time on Live Arcade then normal games. For 'normal' games have been decent, some real gems (Oblivion, Dead Rising) and more worth playing. I love all the options with channeling music from my computer, and the Marketplace is a great idea. I'm definetly happy with it.

 

[dock]

Pretty lame, to be honest. I've rented tonnes of games, but I'm still stuck with the two I bought when I got it. The only game I really like on it is Oblivion, which came as a surprise. It's pretty cool, but not really there yet IMHO. Some Japanese games would be nice as well.

I think 2007 will be much better of course.

 

[Harmonica]

I had a pretty massive grudge against the 360 at first for being "rushed", as well as that mindboggingly long shortage. I had no interest in getting one until that thread popped up in February... the one about Circuit City getting a big secret shipment. I was mildly interested in the idea until the night before that alleged shipment was to be sold.

I ended up staying up all night with some friends and bickered about the Pros and Cons of getting one.

We stayed up until the store opened and I got a premium with an extra wired controller, a VGA cable, PGR3, and Condemned. After the intense excitement of opening it up, I made the mistake of hooking it up to my hideous SDTV, made even worse by the awful morning glare, which was hurt even more by our collective sleep deprivation. I was in that "OH BOY OH BOY... oh **** oh ****" mode until that night when I had gotten some rest and hooked it up to my monitor and played Condemned and hooked into Xbox Live Arcade.

Since then I've played the 360 in intense spurts. I've just recently truly fallen in love with it after getting a new widescreen 22'' monitor as well as some great surround sound speakers.

Can't wait for Gears of War.

 

[jimbo]

I bought my 360 in April on the same day as my HDTV, so needless to say, the first time I turned it on not only did I get to experience next-gen for the first time, but next-gen in HD. I was pretty floored. And honestly since I bought it in April I haven't felt any of the droughts. I bought it with Call Of Duty 2, Perfect Dark and Ghost Recon which kept me busy for awhile. Then got Oblivion, which I spent the rest of my time on until Prey came out which I also beat right before Dead Rising came out. Bought that. Played that some. Rented Ridge Racer, played that for about a week which I absolutely loved then switched to Kameo which I still have to beat. Enchanted Arms right afterwards for about 2 weeks and now I'm on NBA2K7. So naturally there has been nothing but great game after great game and overall made my experience awesome.

 

[hyp]

bought it at launch and haven't regretted it.

highlights: free demos, xbla, bringin' it home, excellent dashboard, dead rising, rr6, graw, oblivion, pgr3, table tennis and a whole lotta great "b" games.

most of all, playing everything in HD.

 

[brocke]

been a major bummer for me. i can barely find any games that hold my interest. burnout was alright out of all of them i played.

 

[Lyte Edge]

Very enjoyable, especially with Asian game releases only costing $40 each. The main draw of the Xbox 360 for me is definitely Xbox Live; I'm online all the time, and I love that I can chat and play games with my friends at the same time. I currently have 18 games, and some of them I still haven't gotten into, like Oblivion, Chromehounds, and GRAW (heavy-hitters, I know!), but it means that I always have something to play if there's nothing else out.

I also finally bought myself a brand new LCD monitor to play on last night; I was using an older VGA monitor before, and the picture was a bit too dark for me. Now I have a 21 inch screen, it's brighter, bigger, and more vibrant than my old monitor, and I can play at a higher resolution. It felt like I had just upgraded my 360 last night; I'm eager to get home and play some more today. Tomorrow Tenchu Senran comes out. I can't wait to play it, and I hope the online modes are really well done this time around.

Complaints would be the lack of fighting games; Dead Or Alive 4 and SF2 Turbo aren't enough (RRXX doesn't count, plus nobody plays that online anyway), and lack of Xbox BC titles. I'd really like to play Street Fighter Anniversary Collection, Unreal Championship 2, Outrun 2, and Outlaw Tennis on my 360 among others.

 

[whatdidyousay]

Even though I had to suffer a 360 meltdown and had to deal with horrid customer service, i still had a great year with it.

What you said.

Seriously, I've had a lot of fun with my 360. Ridge Racer 6 (kiss my butt, haters), GRAW, Dead Rising, COD3, Table Tennis, Oblivion (at least what I played of it :lol ), PGR3, and Condemned gave me hours and hours of good times.

 

[nubbe]

Some fun games… Mostly same old and nothing which has made me go WOAH from a visual or gameplay perspective

Even got 3 red flashing rings one time during the hottest time this summer, but my system survive… But is lost 120 ****ing lines in Bejeweled 2 endless mode!!!!1111 ((
Thanks to the amazing save system your progress gets deleted if the system ****s up in some way.
Get it... the system overheated during a 2D arcade game >_>

Like the marketplace demos and trailers... hate the wallet-rapetransactions

Also dislike that a number of games have crappy framerates

 

[robot]

Amazing first year, with some really solid titles in such a short time. Ridge Racer 6, Condemned, Dead Rising, Saints Row, Dead or Alive 4, Chromehounds, Fight Night Round 3, Ghost Recon, Table Tennis, 99 Nights (imho) and thats not even counting the Live Arcade games and games I passed up (Oblivion coming to mind).

Xbox Live has been the best thing to happen to gaming in a long time - between Live Arcade, the free demo's & videos, acheivement points, descriptive buddy lists, and voice/text chat...they just completely nailed it.

So yeah, I've been completely satisfied with the system.

 

[Dante]

been OK, Spent less time playing my 360 then my PS2, but more time then my Gamecube. I expect similar time allocations once Wii and Ps3 are released.

 

[Martini]

pretty good! thanks for asking.

wouldnt have been half as good without my gameznflix account though

 

[Wolffen]

I got my 360 the week before Christmas, thanks to a loving wife getting up at 7:30AM and hitting the Target near our house when they opened for a week, while I went to the Target near where I work at the same time for about a week. She hit paydirt, called me on the cell, and I skipped work for a bit to go pick it up real quick. I had PGR3 waiting for almost a month before I got the system, and that tided me over until I got PD0 for Christmas. That was it, gamewise, other than XBLA game until Oblivion came out. I rented a several games (Farcry, Burnout, GRAW, FN3, Kameo), but didn't purchase any more games until my wife got Burnout for herself when it dropped to $40.

The system has been worth it to me for Oblivion alone, and now that I have and HDTV, it's even better. Knowing Gears and Halo 3 are coming, much less Halo Wars, Splinter Cell, Mortal Kombat 3, XNA Xpress Studio, Blue Dragon and Chopin's Rusty Balls Eternal Sonata has me very happy w/my purchase. My biggest complaints at this point are the buggy BC, (even on THE game for BC, Halo 2), and the HD Era=High Dollar Era for things like five frelling dollars for Pac-Man, Time Pilot, Galaga, etc. (get some damned price flexibility going on, MS!). Downloading demos, high def movie trailers, and previews/trailers from E3 and X06 has been great. I still remember the 'WTFBBQ??!' feeling when I saw the Halo 3 trailer available for download on XBLM during the E3 press conference.

 

[Spencerr]

I've loved it but mostly because of XBLA + XBL. Playing with a group of people you've known online for a long time is fun. I just got gameznflix and that should make it even better as I'll get to try out all the less than spectacular games.

Edit: But yeah, I've had a total of 4 different systems.

 

[theREBELins]

Bought mine at launch and have been loving it since. I'm particularly impressed with amount of high quality games (IMO of course) I have ended up with before the first year has passed. The online interface is amazing. I don't think I could go back to a system that wouldn't let me see what my friends are up to (or have been up to). Achievements are addictive. Arcade is simple fun, and usually adds an extra hour on to my gaming sessions (usually thanks to Geometry Wars).

And while I'm at it...
gt: peetah31
online games: Ridge Racer 6, GRAW, Table Tennis, Saint's Row, PGR3, DOA4, and Burnout

 

[Lo-Volt]

On the whole, it's been a pretty good almost-first year, but it wasn't without some bumps. The big positive is the early wave of games. Not everything was AAA, I admit, but PGR3 was a solid experience, Condemned was a great game for ambience and as a primer into survival horror, and Oblivion was AAA in the payoff for the time I spent with it. The Xbox games I got to experience with it were also good; the two Halo games and San Andreas were quite engrossing and gave me something to do if I was pissed off at another game. The Arcade, admittedly, is something I don't spend as much time or money on, but the four titles I do own are largely good.

The games are a good experience by and large, but what may keep it from garnering a better response from me is the time I spent talking to people from Microsoft regarding their customer services, which were usually polite, but were still sluggish and unhelpful. If I bought my extended warranty from them and not from Best Buy, I don't know if they would have helped nearly as much as the blueshirts in Manhattan did. Blaming the customer for something going wrong doesn't garner you goodwill, Microsoft, for your information.

 

[Netrunner2k2]

It was a slow start for me, but from Dead Rising on it has been pretty darn good(much thanks to GamezNFlix).

I have been playing some multiplayer in Prey after I beat singleplayer and am really impressed at how good the entire game has been.

 

[thirty]

launch for me and i'd have to say that this is the first system EVER where its actually worth turning it on even when theres actually not a physical game coming out. wether it be for a demo or live arcade its just awesome.

 

[Father_Mike]

I have bought one game (GRAW) this year for it and the only other games I plan to get this year are GOW and Rainbow six vegas; everything else has been pushed to 2007. As a comparision, I have bought about 25 games for other systems since getting my 360.

 

[SnakeXs]

Ups n' downs, and unexpecteds.

I'm used to new console lulls, so that wasn't too huge an issue. Launch was passable, Geometry Wars came outta nowhere and carried the system for a while, GRAW rocked, CoD2 after patched gave some good times, Dead Rising was a blast, luckily I was gona most of the summer drought.

Arcade came outta nowhere, gave me some really, really enjoyable experiences.

Overall a pretty weak year, but again, I'm used to it. Coulda been better, but whatever.

The Spring update ruled. I didn't expect so much from it but damn. Hopefully MS keeps that up.

Still in love with the controller. D-Pad's crappy, but for most of it's uses (4 way toggle) it's ok. Can nobody make a perfect D-Pad anymore? After Sega turned their backs on good ones it's all been downhill.

Oblivion was one o f the best experiences ever. What I got the 360 for in the first place, really. So much time spent. I can't even bring myself to say wasted, really. So awesome.

Microtranasctions came, and sucked. Various levels of suckage, but suckage nevertheless.

Now we got Doom, which came outta nowhere. PSU this month, and Gears next month. Then not too much more, until the monster of '07 awakens.

All in all it was much more than I expected. Started slow, what I expected, some sweet surprises, and some great things to come.

 

[binary]

360 has provided me with the most enjoyable videogame experiences since Dreamcast. It's a great piece of hardware...just need a steady stream of good games now.

 

[Fusebox]

Got mine at launch, it melted down a few weeks after but was replaced by MS extremely quickly and without fuss.

Sick of PGR, sick of DOA, love Oblivion but sick of the load-times, love COD2 but finished it, love kameo but finished it, sick of GRAW, love FN3 but sick of the load-times...

I actually haven't turned the system on to play a retail game in a few weeks.

Having said that, roll on ...

Alan Wake
Gears of War
Guitar Hero II
Assassins Creed
PGR4
Mass Effect
Trusty Bell: Chopin's Dream
Bioshock

...baby..!!!

 

[RevenantKioku]

Tepid.
Live is cool with all the demos, but most have pursuaded me to not buy the game. I really love the interface though and shit like Uno has made it fun to catch up with old friends while just ****ing around.
And now for the games. Dead Rising and Oblivion didn't hold me long enough. Condemned and Table Tennis were ultimately disappointing. Battle for Middle Earth II made me cry. Live Arcade is nice, but since they are arcade games, I only play them in short bursts and could really use some more variety.
On the horizon, well there are a few things coming eventually (Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, and Trusty Bell) and I'll snag Enchant Arms after a price drop.

 

[madmook]

Good while it lasted (since launch). Just sent my 360 out in the coffin. It was my first experience with Live and I've loved it ever since, such a cohesive online experience. Now I just gotta wait till MS sends me a refurb or a new unit. I've read horror stories of refurbs not working out of the box (WTF?) or not even lasting the day, so I'm not exactly looking forward to dealing with that jazz.

 

[Xellos]

I haven't used my 360 much, but it's been a good experience during the time I have spent with it. I bought it for Oblivion and Dead Rising, and neither dissapointed. I also own Tomb Raider and Ridge Racer, but they're on the backburner for now. For upcoming software, I'm really looking forward to Gears and Crackdown. The best thing about the system, though, has got to be Live. The demos and videos have been a great way to try out upcoming content, and I especially liked the E3 and X06 blowouts. I haven't bought any XBLA games yet, but I'm considering Doom and will definitely download Castle Crashers, SotN, and Contra when they're available.

As for the hardware, I haven't had any issues. Hopefully that holds up since I didn't buy an extended warranty.

 

[DCharlie]

It's a mixed bag but overall it's been an okay launch characterised by a lot of missed opportunites.

XBLA is prehaps where i'm nodding my head the most at the moment - i love XBLA , don't get me wrong, but the roll out of content is a little less flowing than i would want.

A lot of games suffer the same glitch which is a bit annoying : Vsync issues. I don't know what it is about vsync issues, but it drives me nuts :/

Games have had the usual share of launch chaff, but there are some very nice games in there and some outstanding ones.

Chrome Hounds is GotY hands down imo right now.
Oblivion was fantastic too and some of the sports games are excellent (NBA, ProBaseball Spirits 3 in particular)

The system needs some hard hitting titles though that define the X360 experience , at the moment, it's mainly "what we had before, but prettier" - hopefully GoW , Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, etc. can add something in the game play department that sets the experience appart.

 

[neojubei]

Pretty crappy. I am still playing the Lost Planet Demo since I bought this system in may. I bought DOA4 and man did I hate this game, so I traded it in and bought Ridge Racer 6, meh title. I ended up trading that game in and buying Rockstar's Table tennis which I still have but do not play. Honestly, Lost Planet is the only game I am actually looking forward to on the 360, sad.

I did download some demos and had mins of fun with them. I guess I am more of a Sony/nintendo gamer than xbox.

 

[Barnolde]

Bought it, had fun with Condemned, CoD2, sent it in for repairs, was pretty boring after that. Spring update ****ed things up, continued to be boring until Dead Rising, which was somewhat of a letdown and then I sold it.

 

[AlanHemberger]

360 is by far my favorite console that I've ever owned. I own more games for it than I have for any other single console and I play it more than any other console I've ever owned.

 

[Dracos]

Never had a single problem with my system (knock on wood). Unfortunately I find myself downloading demos and videos more than playing the games. I finished Kameo and COD2 pretty quickly. Played a bit of RR6, DOA4 and Condemed, but none of that held my interest long. PDZ was pretty weak, and PGR3 sucked imo. Then I got Oblivion and that held my interest for a few weeks. I never finished it, but plan to go back and do it. Got Dead Rising because of the massive hype and how cool it looked, haven't played it much at all.

All in all I'd say that the system is absolutely lovely on the hardware front, aside from the noise. The software on the other hand is pretty weak for being out a whole year. GoW and Bioshock I very much look forward to this year however.

I buy all systems. There is always something worth owning for a system for during it's lifespan, so why wait to buy it? The deluge of crap is expected, so I just accept the software drought and play something else if I'm bored. DS and PS2 are still going strong in my house. The 360 hardly gets played but I still love the system. Better games pls.

 

[Systems_id]

Got mine in March, works perfectly. As far as the system goes, wireless controllers are pretty much the greatest thing in the world and the GUI is awesome. Software wise I've had alot of fun. Chromehounds is great, Kameo is a bit "meh", PD: Zero is great, Dead Rising is good, and GRAW and Ridge Racer 6 are probably the best games on the system. So far I'm pretty happy with it.

 

[Y2Kev]

Mine still works.

I liked Oblivion and Graw and Dead Rising. Overall, it's been worth it.

 

[manxor]

Typical 1st year of launch, especially for a console that's ushering in the next-generation of consoles. Extra features, XBLM, XBLA, Downloadable game demos, etc. All Awesome. What's not awesome? Droughts, port-em ups, last-gen games running in 720p (Gun, Godfather, ), screen tearing, <30fps, with glimpses of awesomeness (Oblivion, GRAW, Dead Rising, Condemned, CoD2, Chromehounds MP, Geometry Wars, etc) Dashboard updates.

2nd year... 2nd year though... oh jeez... The 2nd year... oh god, oh my, oh dear god.... it'd better deliver the way it looks to deliver.

 

[Son of Godzilla]

Pretty great, even if my 360 is currently playing checkers when I turn it on. I got a 360 as an awesome surprise Christmas gift from my brother. First thing I did was rent Kameo and was floored by how good the environments were. Initially bought PGR3, PDZ, and DOA4. Never got the hang of PGR3, but played the shit out of PDZ multiplayer (even though I knew it sucked) and DOA4.

Then came GRAW and Oblivion, which lasted me months. Both great experiences, but I haven't felt compelled to go back to either yet. Shelved the 360 during summer as I don't really play videogames then, and when I got it out in fall I traded in PGR3 and PDZ and ended up with Dead Rising, Chromehounds, Enchanted Arms, and eventually TDU. Dead Rising and TDU being some of the best games I've ever played, and Chromehounds being pretty ace itself. I was kinda off my rocker with Enchanted Arms, as I haven't played a jRPG I liked since Legend of Mana, but I got it for only $35 so hey.

Sometime later I downloaded the Sonic demo and my 360 broke out the checkerboard of doom.

All in all the 360 killed the current gen for me, as I haven't touched any of the current consoles since I got the thing. I want to say that I've bought more games for it than any other first year too.

 

[Dr. Kitty Muffins]

A lot of games suffer the same glitch which is a bit annoying : Vsync issues. I don't know what it is about vsync issues, but it drives me nuts :/

Which games have Vsync issues?

I threw out my Xbox copy of Serious Sam when it had vsync issues. That is just garbage!

 

[Scottlarock]

saints row/condemn/graw/COD2, demos on demand, and xbla = well worth the money I spent, moreso then any other system.

 

[Treo360]

It's been a great run so far, although my launch unit did bite the dust a while ago. So what did I do? I returned it to Target after I bought another two units to replace it.

So far so good, and loving every minute of it.