When I first purchased my Xbox 360 on a cold and wet Friday afternoon in December 2005, I had no idea how important that piece of hardware would become. After it had initially launched, I played it for a while but never really got into games aside from FIFA and NBA Live. For a number of months, my Xbox 360 lay collecting dust and being little more than a paper weight. When Halo 3 was released, my outlook on gaming changed forever. The online functions, the great community (to begin with at least) and Master Chief had reeled me back into gaming and from that moment, I realised how great the Xbox 360 could be.
It was until relatively recently where I first had possession of a PS3, the start of this year in fact. While I was extremely late to the party, I was able to catch up on brilliant titles such as Uncharted 2, Metal Gear Solid 4 and, the amazing, The Last of Us. Now that the next-gen is appearing on the horizon, the current-gen deserves a huge amount of credit from the games it produced as well as what it all meant to me.
As I have already mentioned, Halo 3 was a major turning point in my gaming life. It was my first console game where I was actively able to interact with numerous players in the same match with the brilliant voice chat functions. Friendships were formed and you knew who you could rely on to play with if you see them online.
At that time, I had experience of online first-person shooters before with return to Castle Wolfenstein on the PC being a game me and my friends enjoyed. It was a great time to be introduced to what the Xbox 360 could accomplish and the online multiplayer in Halo 3 made me want to venture out into other games to see what their communities were like. I did have experience of one online multiplayer game via the Xbox 360 prior to Halo 3, the FIFA World Cup 2006 game was thoroughly enjoyable online but it felt like playing a game of FIFA while talking to someone on the phone.
This then started me off onto being more confident when interacting with the gaming community as, in the beginning, everyone just wanted to play the game and become the best they could be. This lead onto the success of the Call of Duty series as well as the idea’s which games such as Assassin’s Creed and Grand Theft Auto Online were able to build on.
Although I have never been a huge fan of horror films, I began a passion for scary or atmospheric games. Some of the best games I have played this generation have been atmospheric games that mess with your head as well as have a great storyline.
The first game to draw me in with its immersive storyline was Dead Space. When I first started playing through Dead Space, I was terrified at one of the first encounters you have with the Necromorphs. The section where you think you are safe as you run to the elevator. The silence is such a relief although, only for a few seconds until you are jumping off the edge of your seat as a Necromorph burst through the elevator. This sets the tone for the game early on that you should expect the unexpected and this was a brilliant part of the original game.
The story was also well worked as you found yourself looking for something that was so close to Isaac. The fact that Isaac Clarke didn’t say a word in the first game, besides the occasional grunt from stomping on these monsters, meant that you could associate yourself with the character to a certain extent.
It was small details like this that made me appreciate gaming a whole lot more. I had played survival-horror games in the past including Resident Evil back in the 90’s and the Thing in the early 2000’s but these were just fun shooters to me at that time. Resident Evil 4 is one of my favourite games of all time and even though I had played it on the PS2, the Wii version was fantastic. For me, Dead Space had everything and is still a masterpiece. Although the sequel focused more on the action aspect of the game and Dead Space 3 just wasn’t that good, the series is still among my favourite gaming series ever.
A similar game which has helped shape this generation is Bioshock. No matter what your opinions are in regards to first-person shooters, you must play Bioshock. Although the atmosphere wasn’t as terrifying as Dead Space’s, Bioshock’s world was wonderful and charming although there was next to no activity happening in the wonderful world of Rapture. The use of the vigors paired with the guns you could use, meant that playing through the game on the hardest difficulty was brilliant and you would enjoy investigating enemies to see what their weaknesses were.
The best feature of the game isn’t even the phenomenal world which you can explore or the wonderful gameplay mechanics, the story and characters are what make Bioshock such an amazing game. To begin with, you are involved in a plane crash and have no idea how you stumbled upon this underwater city or what you are meant to do there.
All the characters are memorable, right from the word beginning as each has their own personality and way of dealing with situations. You collect audio diaries during the story and this provides a background on some of the things which happened in Rapture as well as looking at the personalities of certain characters. You find yourself wanting to search every last section of the game to find all of these as it almost felt like a separate story.
The story as you progress through the game proves that games can compete with movies and the huge twist in the Bioshock story left me with an amazing feeling as I couldn’t believe a game could do that. The twist was so shocking because you could not see it coming. Although the ending isn’t very memorable, the game as a whole was a masterpiece.
The sequel was brilliant as well as the world was just as wonderful but the story could never reach the heights of the original and with Bioshock Infinite, the gameplay never lived up to expectations and there was a sense that everyone was expecting a twist in the story which didn’t make it seem as shocking as the original.
In terms of changing my life, Rock Band 2 was a revelation. As I have written about this topic several times before, the Rock Band series had everything. The idea of playing a plastic instrument sounds awful but is a brilliant challenge and offers so much replay value. As I had found such a brilliant community with Halo 3 at its time of release, the Rock Band community is arguably the best community I have ever been associated with. No matter what level you played at, everyone just wanted to play songs together in a full band.
Harmonix’s attitude towards DLC was a breath of fresh air as it consistently offered new content every single week. The social aspect of the game didn’t stop with playing online; the ‘living room’ playing conditions are probably the best I’ve ever experienced. As long as you were willing to part with more than £100, you would be able to experience the feeling of a rock band in your front room. It wasn’t too uncommon to have friends over for a relaxing night playing Rock Band which would end up being a workout for all participants and it was great fun playing too. It’s a huge shame that Guitar Hero destroyed the fad with oversaturation but for the time that I had with Rock Band, I only have brilliant memories from it.
As the Xbox One is released today, it signals the end of a new generation in gaming (in the UK). The Xbox 360 and PS3 generation certainly proved how popular gaming is on a worldwide scale. The original Xbox and PS2 were extremely popular but these consoles out-performed anyone’s expectations. In my time spent with the Xbox 360 and PS3 I have had numerous amazing experiences including The Last of Us, Far Cry 3, Grand Theft Auto V, Forza Motorsport 4, Halo 4, Uncharted 2 and many more. This generation will always have a place in my heart. For all the disappointment with red rings of death and replacing consoles, the quality these machines have provided is amazing. Thank you.
@SimonMarshall6
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