Why I Don't Like Xbox
If you look through my physical games collection list, you would notice the lack of any Xbox titles to speak of. It’s safe to say that my brand loyalties were tied to Nintendo, Sony, and Sega but not Microsoft. There’s a couple of reasons for that and each generation of Xbox console had it’s own quirks that were enough to make it unappealing for me.
That’s not to say I was out of the Microsoft ecosystem entirely. I’ve been playing on PC (Windows specifically) for decades up until the 2010s. I adore the Microsoft Flight Simulator Games with 2004 A Century of Flight being my favorite Flight Simulator of all time. I own a Microsoft Sidewider Flightsick. I even bought a wired Xbox 360 controller for playing games on my PC back in the day because it was an extremely comfortable controller while it lasted. I don’t dislike the Halo series and I bought Halo:CE on PC because of my experience playing Halo splitscreen on the original Xbox. But I never went out of my way back then nor at this moment to seek out an Xbox console of any kind? Why is that?
Starting off with the original Xbox from 2001, At the time, I was more excited for the Gamecube and PS2 than I was for this new console. I played a little bit of Dreamcast and Saturn with my friend from Elementary School in 4th grade. My cousin who I bring up a lot in these blogs was a step ahead when he got a PS2 before I did (The original fat model). Not once in that generation did any of us consider getting an Xbox. My experience with the original Xbox was actually from an older relative who came to visit one day from Arkansas. He brought his Xbox console and two games that happened to be Halo and some Tony Hawk Game. The latter was more or less the same as some of the Tony Hawk Games I played in the PS1 era but Halo was really impressive for me at the time. He and I both played through the campaign while he was visiting through co-op. I liked the game but I was struggling with the DUKE controller which was far too big for my hands though I was still able to have a good time. Just from playing Halo alone, I was justified in my desire to want the original Xbox as a kid but my parents didn’t really listen to my demands and eventually got me a Gamecube for my birthday (which I really enjoyed) but Xbox would just be something that I would have limited or no experience until when Halo 2 came out and I played splitscreen multiplayer with some relatives and my cousin. That was also a lot of fun too. I think I used the smaller Xbox controller that was released later and found it more comfortable to use than the Duke.
I don’t hate the Original Xbox. It was a fine console for the time and arguably had the best ports followed by Gamecube and PS2. I was not a fan of the green Mountain Dew (I hate Mountain Dew btw) and black color scheme. It was also a massive console and I couldn’t imagine it fitting in my TV cabinet. My cousin never got one so I suppose I never had the justification to beg harder for the console. Would I buy one now? Probably not. You have to re-solder capacitors to keep the console going these days and that sounds like it’s more work than it needs to be just to play some slightly better PS2 games. Apparently, the OG Xbox was a fantastic media center and homebrew machine but I was not active in that scene.
By the time the Xbox 360 came around, my cousin was the one who bought it so I played it at his place. The first generation was a nice looking console unlike the OG Xbox. It was white, sleek, with chrome accents, and looked futuristic. There was a Perfect Dark game on the 360 which we both found to be lame compared to the N64 version but the other two first person shooters were pretty good. Those being The King Kong Movie game which is unironically a decent game with some neat immersion gameplay aspects such as having no HUD and your playable character saying how much ammo you have left instead of showing it was pretty cool. I was very impressed by the graphics of Call of Duty 2 and had never seen such a photorealistic game before other than with Pikmin 2’s environments. When Halo 3 finally came out, that was the shit (Oh and Gears of War, we played some of that too). We would both take turns playing online matches and shit talking/trolling people online with the headset. Good times until the console eventually got the red ring of death the following year. He eventually got a Xbox Elite but at that point, we were both on that PS3 bandwagon and that was my console choice for that generation next to the Wii. It was as if after Halo 3, the Xbox 360 was starting to feel less and less appealing. The PS3 had a blueray player, free online, and was more versatile. I took my PS3 to Uni during my first few semesters and it helped me relax on weekends when I had nothing else to do.
I’m very hesitant to purchase an Xbox 360 second hand. The big problem with that console apart from poor quality control is the fact that you have to pay to play games online. That’s fucking stupid and I hate that all the consoles now use that barrier of entry just to play online. I don’t care if you try to entice me with free monthly games or old shit I could emulate for free. Playing online should be a basic human right that should had never been paywalled. Windows Vista would had been pissing me off at the time but Microsoft being a nickle and dimming company with online gaming only soured my perspective with Microsoft when the eventual downfall would eventually come for them.
It started off the Kinetic with the 360 era. Every console manufacture was trying to cash in on the success of Nintendo’s motion controls with the Wii. The PS3 was the most subtle and blatant with the move controller but it was never something that was forced upon you. The Kinetic on the other hand was this camera that watched you play naked and send the video to God knows where but I suppose it also was used for….some games. They also had those mii knocks off which looked disgusting.
But by the time the Xbone was first announced, it was all downhill from there. If you know your recent gaming history, you already know why the Xbox One or Xbone was a disaster. I don’t think I need to school you on that. But all that to say, I was absolutely not going to buy an Xbone. It was an easy win for Sony that generation, but the PS4 was also unappealing with it’s requirement for a PlayStation Plus subscription. The only console that didn’t have a paid online service was Nintendo with the Wii-U but that console was a major flop with game droughts the like of which I haven’t seen before. If it weren’t for PC gaming and my 3DS, I would had dropped out of gaming entirely.
And ever since then, I’d never considered getting an Xbox console of any kind. From what I heard, the UI on the newer consoles are trash full of adverts and bloat. Paid online is now the norm so I have nothing but resentment for the Xbox brand for starting that trend, and frankly, there are no games on the Xbox brand that are worth playing. 343 sodomized the Halo brand into a joke. Gears of War is irrelevant, and the company is going under no matter what the shills are telling you about how good 2026’s Xbox presentation was in Summer of No Games. I can say that with confidence because Xbox had openly announced it’s cutting staff and studios and is even considering implementing in-game adverts. It wouldn’t surprise me if they made Kinetic 2 which would be mandatory for the current generation of Xboxes (And did I mention how stupid the naming convention is for the consoles? Xbox one, Series S, Series X, Series XXX). I could see it this new Kinetic scanning your face while you play the new Halo remake and then it pauses the game forcing you to watch a McDonald’s commercial and the only way to skip it is to jump up in the air with your hands up for the Kinetic and shout at the top of your lungs “MCDONALDS”!
I emulated a couple of Xbox OG games like Panzer Dragoon on my PC and though the performance was struggling, I am still interested in the library for that console. Other than that, I have no interest in any of the other Xbox consoles. Maybe I’d like to have a 360 too but I’m not confident in buying a second hand console which could be on the verge of getting a red ring of death anytime soon.
Xbox to me represents the worst of modern gaming. It was and still is my moral objection to the brand which started off in the 360 generation that prevents me from ever considering getting any Xbox. I will not deny that I had some good times with the console when I played it, but I don't see a point in owning one other than for the very few exclusives.
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