For the vast majority of my video game life, I’ve been a self-professed Nintendo fanboy. It started with the classic grey box known as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), and quickly progressed to the puke green display of the original Game Boy, the 3D environment of the Nintendo 64, the dual screen adventure of the Nntendo DS Lite, and the waggle controls of the Nintendo Wii. I think the only major Nintendo console that I missed was the Virtual Boy (thank goodness).
By and large, I’ve remained Nintendo loyal, eschewing the first two PlayStations, the 3DO, the Jaguar, the first Xbox, the Genesis, and all sorts of other competing consoles. Now that I’m a little older and I have a little more disposable income, however, I’ve started to venture outside of the realm of Nintendo, supplementing it with the PSP and PlayStation 3. More recently, I couldn’t help myself from snatching the Microsoft Xbox 360. Believe me, I have my reasons.
Why I Bought an Xbox 360
A short while ago, Microsoft announced that it would be discontinuing the 20GB Xbox 360 Pro in favour of introducing the 60GB Xbox 360 Pro at the same price. As a result, retailers started scrambling to get rid of the old 20GB units. I missed out on a better deal earlier in the month, but I managed to find the 20GB Xbox 360 Pro for just $199.99 at Future Shop. This is $100 cheaper than it should be and it’s the same price as the Xbox 360 Arcade (the latter of which lacks a hard drive altogether). My local Future Shop was sold out by the time I heard about the deal, but I got a price match at Best Buy. Tacking on a discount equivalent to 10% of the difference and a coupon for $10 off, I picked up the 20GB Xbox 360 Pro for $182.99 plus tax. Not too shabby.
The huge discount on this gaming console was certainly a motivating factor, but there are three other main reasons why I decided to finally take the Xbox 360 plunge. First, a good number of my Dot Com Pho friends are on the Xbox 360, so that’s the only way that I’d play online with them. They’re not nearly as inclined to enjoy the Wii online. Second, I wanted to enjoy Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour online with those kooks. Third, I’m looking forward to playing Street Fighter IV and the Wii won’t get that. The Wii doesn’t do much in terms of fighting games.
What I’ve Got
I’m a total newbie to the world of the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live, so it’ll take a little while for me to get my bearings and get accustomed to the surroundings. As it stands, I only own two games: Rock Band 2 and Gears of War. I don’t even have the proper instruments for Rock Band 2 yet, relying totally on the bundled Xbox 360 headset for the vocals. I really need to get a guitar. On a side note, I almost bought an Xbox 360 solely for Gears of War when it first came out, thanks to that terrific commercial. Mad World was awesome.
What I Want
Although I will try to exercise some restraint, there are certainly several items on my shopping and/or wish list. They currently include Bully: Scholarship Edition, Grand Theft Auto IV, and an Xbox Live Gold membership. This is in addition to the need for a proper Rock Band microphone and wireless guitar. Do you have any game recommendations? I’m not huge on first-person shooters, so don’t tell me to get Call of Duty 4. I don’t care how good it is.
What I Will Get
Looking to the future, I will most definitely pick up Guitar Hero World Tour and Street Fighter IV. Aside from that, I’m not too sure what I should get. More fighting games would be fun and there’s a distinct possibility that I’ll grab NHL 09 so that I can play against a guy who wants to be a real boy.
In any case, I’m a part of the Xbox 360 community now. Feel free to add me to your friend list. My GamerTag is HadoukenOnline…. I’m pretty sure you can figure out the origin of that nickname.
Get HALO 3! It’s cheap now. I haven’t played it for a while. We should get together for a session. I’ll try to keep the shooting you by accident to a minimum.
Isn’t Halo 3 more of an FPS, rather like COD4 which Kwanye don’t care how good they are?
I’m a big fan of first-person shooters but if FPS ain’t your poison, then I’ll recommend GTA IV, Ninja Gaiden 2 and Devil May Cry 4.
I’m so waiting for the release of Gears of War 2.
DMC looks like a lot of fun, but isn’t it notoriously difficult? Same with NG2?
NG2 & DMC4 are not easy games but I won’t go so far as to rate them as notoriously difficult.
And there are a lot of blood and gore this time, which push the realism factor a notch higher.
I’m sure Nintendo fanboy like you will have a friendlier learning curve and be able to adapt to the gameplay in no time.
Devil May Cry is terrible. I tried playing it and it was just retarded. Not only is it a button-mash but one that you need to wait hours upon hours of installing and cutscenes to play. Never before have I felt as detached from the gameplay as when I tried that damned game. It’s one of those things that they should’ve just scrapped the game altogether and made a movie…like nearly every Final Fantasy game.
I took it right back and returned it for a real game.
I love to play DMC4, not the easiest like what betshopboy had said but surely a must to have in your game list.
Did you not have a SNES or did you just not list it? I remember my good friend had one and I seemed to always get my ass kicked playing Troy Aikman football (I think that’s what it was)…you didn’t list the Game Cube either
I still have my NES but don’t have the 360…I have all first generation stuff except for my Wii: NES, Sega Genesis, PS1, XBOX, oh and I have an orginal Game Boy too (none of this color or other special crap :D)
Based on my limited experience, I’m sorry but I don’t have any recommendations :S
I had an SNES, but I just didn’t list it. My total Nintendo experience included NES, SNES, N64, NGC, Wii, Game Boy, GBA-SP, and DS Lite.
The SNES had a lot of fighting games, which I really liked, but the first Mortal Kombat took out the gore, etc. I vaguely remember an Aikman football game, but my brother and I went with either Quarterback Club (Acclaim) or Madden (EA) for most of the seasons.
Oh, and the Genesis is not a “first-gen” machine, because there was the Sega Master System before that.
Hmmm, I don’t know that I’ve ever even heard of the Sega Master System….
I would kinda like to get my hands on an Atari though 🙂
I had an Atari before I had the NES. Forget exactly which one though. Defender and Missile Command were a blast!