About a year later I was gifted one for my birthday, specifically the "arcade edition" which didn't have a hard drive (we got a 20gb hdd a few weeks later.) I can't remember all the games I had on release but I did have Halo 3 and I played the fuck out of it.
My 360 gaming trajectory went the typical route from there. Call of Duty 4, Modern Warfare 2, Black Ops, Halo: Reach, ODST, Mass Effect, Burnout: Paradise, Fable, etc, etc. I don't remember the exact order I got everything but it's everything everyone who had a 360 played.
I do remember one specific story that I liked to talk about. I absolutely love the Fable series. I used to play through them with my dad. We had preordered Fable III and when we got the GameStop the line was pretty big. We found out by talking to a few people in line that literally every other person there was getting Rockband 3, which came out the same day. My dad and I were the only ones getting Fable III. Rockband 3 was probably better, Fable III kinda sucks.
Anyway, I feel like the seventh generation, the 360 in particular, gets a lot of shit for how similar the popular games are. It's mostly first person shooters, and if it's not an fps it's an rpg that's also a shooter. Most games were brown, short, had a single player campaign that was a complete afterthought to 99% of players. But something I've learned in my adult life is that there's a lot of really interesting and unique games to be had, if you just look beyond the top sellers. I'm gonna talk about a few.
Tenchu Z
Tenchu Z took the Tenchu formula everyone loved, gave it some extra depth, and then let you make your own character. Throughout the game, you can customize your ninja with unlocked clothing, skills, stats, and special moves. It's really good and I think the reason it's not discussed more is that 1) nobody really seems to care that much about Tenchu past the first game and 2) it was Xbox 360 exclusive.
Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise
I think there might not be a better animal raising game out there. Viva Piñata is janky and can be really frustrating when you're trying to get those piñatas fuckin' nasty style to make the best babies but nothing before or since has really lived up to it. My wife and I have been looking for something like it but we haven't found anything. I'd love to hear about any if you know them.
Blur
Blur is so fucking cool. Take regular ass cars and give them Mario Kart/Wipeout style power ups, a bomb ass soundtrack, fucking stunning visuals, and throw it on the 360 and PS3 and then never rerelease it or do another one or make a similar game ever again. I wish there was more Blur in the world.
Everyone had a 360 at one point in time, even if you only had it for a week before it got the Red Ring of Death, I wanna hear your stories. Please share. Thank you.
