Just like the roads in South Africa, the last-gen consoles were bumpy, expensive, and sometimes had potholes (of disappointment) in them – unless you lived in a nice neighborhood or major city, then they were sometimes smooth and got you where you needed to go.
The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 had some good days, but they also had some terrible ones – we take a look at the latter.
Microsoft Xbox 360
Red Ring of Death
The Red Ring of Death – known as the RRoD – was arguably the biggest dent in Xbox 360’s reputation during its lifespan.
The first generation of 360s suffered something terrible from this problem, with many users reporting that their consoles simply gave up on life during a game. It was not until a few years later that Microsoft started producing more robust consoles, but by then the damage was done.
The solution to the RRoD – throw your console off a bridge.
Kinect
The “you are the controller” slogan was the hottest marketing line back when Microsoft revealed the first Kinect Model in 2010. Unfortunately the company may have oversold the product, with a buggy body recognition engine and shoddy games defining the motion sensor.
Gamers eventually reached a stage where their Kinects become dust-collecting ornaments due to the aforementioned issues and poor software support.
Anyone else remember shouting voice commands at Mass Effect 3?
Multiple Discs
The Xbox 360 was not the “greenest” console on the market, especially when it came to big games like Final Fantasy XIII. Many games had to be crammed onto multiple discs due to the Xbox 360’s DVD drive support which maxed out at 8.5GB.
Final Fantasy XIII, GTA V, Star Ocean, and Halo 4 – these were just a few of the games which had to be spread across multiple discs in order to be shipped for the Xbox 360.
GTA 5 on Xbox 360
Xbox Gold
The Xbox 360 might have inspired new features to be implemented in Xbox Gold, but the general online experience felt underwhelming on the console.
Going online on the 360 meant a dashboard crammed full of advertising, a line-up of free games which required Xbox Gold and DLC, and rather sad games given to you as “gifts”.
Not much has changed over the years, now that I think about it.
Gold Accounts Only
Sony PlayStation 3
PlayStation Home
Never over-promise and under-deliver – that makes gamers angry.
PlayStation Home can be compared to moving into a new house as a kid: you are all excited to see your new room and neighbourhood, only to discover upon arrival that you live next-door to a crack dealer. PS Home was supposed to be the hub where gamers from all over the world could come and chill, while tailoring the digital world to suit their needs and likes.
Instead of everything Sony promised, gamers got an overpriced living space with buggy environments, zero cross-game initiatives, and a drinks bill which would rival a night out with Charlie Sheen.
Goodbye PS2 Games
One of the best features of the PS3 was the ability to play your old PS2 games – backwards compatibility for the win. This feature did not last long, however, when Sony decided to redesign the PS3 and look where it could cut costs.
One of the “cost-cutting” measures was the removal of the ability to play PS2 games from the original disc – meaning gamers had to purchase the PS2 game from the PlayStation Store or wait for it to receive the HD Remaster treatment.
PlayStation 2 Games
Yellow Light of Death
Just like the Xbox 360, the PS3 also had its dramatic light of doom.
The Yellow Light of Death meant your PS3 would not boot during the system check, and the console even made a beeping sound just to drive the point home.
Sony did allow some owners of faulty PS3s to send their consoles in and have them replaced with a refurbished unit, which would eventually break down and succumb to the Yellow Light of Death, too.
PlayStation Network Hack
Lasting 24 days, the PlayStation Network hack downtime was one the biggest cyber attacks in gaming history. If you were one of the 77 million people at the time who had a PSN account then your credit card info, trust in Sony, and ability to use the PS3’s online functionality were all taken without warning.
Sony took a hard hit from this hack, and tried to apologise to gamers by giving away free games – which most of us already owned.
Network down, network down.
Which moments of the last generation took the jam out of your doughnut? Let us know in the comments and forum.
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I had 4 Xbox 360s, 2 died due to RRoD, and one due to Zeus hating me. My PS4 only died after my 2y old “pushed” it off the table a few months ago. And the Wii is somewhere in a box. Multi disc was not a huge problem thanks to the Xbox ability to install games to HDD. What I did hate was running our of charged batteries on the controller just as I was almost clocking the game.