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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

A decade of Xbox

On this day,  ten years ago , Microsoft got serious about the game world with the launch of its first console,  Xbox . A decade later, the Redmond company is more than alive and  Sony and Nintendo dispute the throne for the best home entertainment system.

To celebrate, we look back to remember ten moments that have defined the decade in which Xbox has become for many, and allow me to include in the group, referring to the console.

1. 15/11/01 . Okay, its design was ugly, the command was a brick worthy of our housing bubble and the output catalog with the exception of Halo, it was not to rave about. But Microsoft had done , had fully embraced the world of consoles to give boost to games based on DirectX against Sony was building emporium with PS2.

2. Halo . Until Halo, the shooter was a genre almost exclusively on computers. Until Halo. If today we look at the year's best-selling games find games kicking style thanks to the revolution caused by the title of Bungie.

3. The inclusion of the hard drive. It may seem silly to point these out in the middle of 2011, but do not forget that ten years ago consoles were nothing without a memory card on which to record our games. And some more. Although 360 Microsoft became more restrictive, with the first Xbox could do real fancy stuff with the inclusion of a hard disk in the console (and not talking and you can store extra content for games).

4. Outperforms Nintendo's first console . It may seem an absurd figure to see what has sold in this generation Wii, but Xbox sold 24 million units by the 22 GameCube shows that Redmond did things right from day one. With Sony sweeping without a rival who could stand up to you to you, Microsoft appeared at the right time to establish itself as the alternative to PlayStation.

5. Xbox Live . Appeared in 2002 but had no serious impact on the market until the arrival of 360. If something is demonstrated to play Live network with a friend at the other end of the world with no more trace of latency possible. The universe that opened for gamers knew no bounds.

6. 360 . At the time seemed a bold move , but time has given them reason despite good cost them headaches. Microsoft was ahead of Sony and Nintendo released their next generation console a year before the competition . Despite the unforgivable failures caused by the rush (the infamous circle of death), the Redmond delivered, with 365 in advance, a console that, in general, has nothing to envy to PS3 in terms of performance of games.

7. New command . Faced with the controversy over his first command, 360 came with a driver that has earned the respect of almost all gamers , taking the concept of the Dual Shock and taking it one step further. At this point several bodies are pulling ahead of its competitors.

8. Gears of War . If Halo was the title symbolized the launch of the first Xbox, Gears of War could be associated with 360 perfectly . The first title in the franchise was a real vendeconsolas Epic not only for its technical quality, but by an overwhelming publicity campaign.

9. Forza Motorsport . Allow me to get giddy. Or not. Among the barrage of genres that 360 has in its catalog first party, the driving seemed a losing battle. With Gran Turismo front, think Polyphony beat the giant was a chimera. But no. On the one hand, the Nipponese have been resting on their laurels and Turn 10 is another stepping up to deliver in Forza Motorsport 4 the best driving simulation that can be found on consoles right now.




10. Kinect . It was inevitable closing the decade with the motion sensor 360. As has happened to Nintendo Wii, still can not find its place among hardcore gamers beyond the odd rarity (Child of Eden). But without doubt, part of the future of consoles passes Kinect. Maybe not next stop command, but to interact with the console with our voice, for instance, opens an interesting range of possibilities, as we shall see in Mass Effect 3.

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