10. The Hardware Is Still Impressive
WikipediaIt says a lot about the effort put into the Xbox 360 and PS3 hardware that they are still relevant so many years later. The constantly evolving operating systems and user interfaces across both consoles played their part in keeping things looking and feeling fresh, but the underlying hardware is the foundation for everything else to build on. The seventh generation made a substantial leap from the consoles that came before it, something which both Sony and Microsoft have struggled to achieve with their latest machines. Both consoles handled the hardware question in their own way, creating similarly powered systems but with considerably different architecture under the hood. The Xbox 360 was considered the every-mans console when it came to development procedure - from the start, developers were pushing quite a lot out of the hardware - while it took longer to unweave the Cell technology which carried Sony's system. Now, some seven years later, the wizards who make the games that we love have got it all figured out; each time we think they've pushed these consoles to their limits, they squeeze more magic out of them. Spend a day with The Last Of Us or wandering around San Andreas and you'll see just how far we've come. The bottom line is that your "old" console still has a lot of bite to go with its bark, so there's no reason to put them out to pasture just yet.