We’ve been looking back into the mists of time, to the halcyon days of Microsoft’s very first Xbox. That massive black brick that was to start the journey that many of us are still on to this day. We’ve grown with Xbox too, enjoying great times on the 360 and more with the new shiny black brick that is Xbox One.
Hard to believe it’s been a little over 12 years since the Xbox was launched here in the UK. Gaming has changed a LOT in some ways, but in others it’s still very much the same. We decided take a look back at some of the highlights of our time with Microsoft’s original console.
These games may not be the classics you remember, you may have a whole different set of games that make you smile in remembrance, but these are the ones we here at XBLG remember fondly. Join in with us in the comments section and share your thoughts below.
We kick off our trip down memory lane with Aggressive Inline. Acclaim Entertainment’s game was like Tony Hawk’s but with roller blades. It was a joy chaining tricks together throughout the game environment and took the slick gameplay of Tony Hawk to another level. It had that twitch “one more go” feeling to it as you tried to hit the set targets of each level.
Aggressive Inline
Baldurs Gate Dark Alliance
Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance saw us harking back to the glory arcade days of Gauntlet, Baldur’s Gate took a skewed isometric viewpoint of the action and its style was and still is to this day a huge influence in the Diablo series. Pure Dungeons and Dragons delight and a real grind fest of weapons, armour, magic and monsters. Travelling through the varied and beautifully realised regions of the Forgotten Realms was a real joy, even more so in local co-op. Who could forget Drizzy Do’Urden too?
Star Wars Battlefront. Battlefield inspired Star Wars = EPIC WIN. Immersing you in the likes of the Battle of Endor, Hoth, Kashyyyk et al was just glorious for its time. I don’t think we need to say anything else really do we? Well, OK, it’s no surprise that after Pandemic Studios closed a number of their devs worked on both Halo Anniversary and Halo 4 for 343 Studios.
Star Wars Battlefront
Black
Black by Criterion Games was insane. Destructible environments and set pieces FTW! An FPS that at the time made you feel like you were in an all action Hollywood blockbuster. If it was remade today there would be a huge “from Director Michael Bay” attached to the front of it such were its explosive levels! Criterion set out to “do for shooting what Burnout did for racing – tear it apart”. To this day we think they did a bloomin’ great job of it!
The Burnout series quite appropriately follows Black on this list. Criterion introduced some of the greatest driving game mechanics around that we still see to this day in the likes of Need for Speed. Little did we know back then just how big an impact the original Burnout would have. Aggressive driving, the speed… OH MY GOODNESS THE SPEED…, takedowns (later on in the series) and who could forget the absolutely awesome Crash Mode. A racing game that actively encouraged reckless driving. This was one of the finest, if not the finest, racing series on the original Xbox culminating in the destructively beautiful Burnout Revenge.
Burnout
Burnout 2 – Point of Impact
Burnout 3 – Takedown
Burnout Revenge
Call of Cthulhu Dark Corners of the Earth may be a little left of field and its controls were perhaps not the easiest to get to grips with, but my God was it dripping with eerie and incredibly unsettling atmosphere. With no onscreen hud in this FPS to keep you immersed in the game, you had to pay attention to your breathing, your state of mind, your surroundings. An injured leg and you couldn’t run, an injured hand or arm and you couldn’t shoot straight. Mental imbalance became the norm throughout. To this day it’s still a disturbing game to give you nightmares.
Call of Cthulhu Dark Corners of the Eart Fable
Peter Molyneux’s classic, Fable, perhaps didn’t include anywhere near the amount of things that he had hoped for or promised, but the feeling of growing up, deciding to be good or bad, having a family, growing older and more as you travelled around Albion was hugely rewarding. Albion itself was a wonderful place of discovery that seemed to have this fey hue, a softness that belied some real nasty and evil enemies. Balverines still make me twitchy to this day.
Grand Theft Auto III may have taken a few years to get it onto the big black brick after its initial release on Playstation 2 but it was definitely worth the wait. A fully living, breathing and at the time realistic feeling world that set the standard for the Grand Theft Auto series moving forward. It was gritty, it was dirty, it had that trademark black humour of Rockstar’s and some real memorable characters to boot. Cruising around Liberty City listening to Lazlo and soaking up the world was pretty special.
Grand Theft Auto III Halo: Combat Evolved
Our nostalgia trip wouldn’t be complete with Halo. The game and its franchise has pretty much defined console FPS shooters. Who can forget stepping into Master Chief’s shoes for the first time as he woke from cryo? Who can forget the start of that relationship with Cortana that remains such an integral part to the Halo series? The first time you stepped into a Warthog and wrestled with the controls or stole a Banshee or Ghost. So many highlights, so many years. A true classic and bastion of not just Xbox gaming but gaming in general.
Knights of the Old Republic. A Star Wars RPG set 4,000 years before A New Hope. Full of wonder, full of incredible locations to visit, full of iconic races from the Star Wars universe. It was a huge homage to everything that we love about the Star Wars universe. It gave us a chance to step into the shoes of those living a long, long time ago before a long, long time ago. You had Jedi, Sith, your first proper look at the Mandalorians and their creed. A million voices cried out in anguish recently though, when Lucasfilm announced that anything outside of the films and Clone Wars tv series wasn’t considered canon. Thanks for that George. Thanks a lot.
Star Wars KoTOR Max Payne
Max Payne was one of the few games that jumped into view as the FPS was starting to storm the market. A third person shooter featuring that iconic bullet time system, that at one point became so over-used and drenched in excellently written and executed narrative. You follow Max Payne in his journey for veneance against those who murdered his family. Max soon discovers there’s more going on at hand and eventually finds himself knee-deep in corruption, deceit and treachery. It was a playable Sin City. It was dark. It was gritty. It was bordering on Film Noir. Sadly we don’t think the series ever managed to match the brilliance of the original release.
Midnight Club 2 and its follow up felt like true open world racing and to this day you can still feel its hands at the wheel of the vehicles in the likes of Grand Theft Auto V. Elements of Los Angeles, Paris, Tokyo, San Diego, Atlanta and Detriot were beautifully recreated to race through at speed, as you powerslide around corners and bends avoiding traffic. A huge amount of cars, a huge amount of customisation and a huge amount of fun.
Midnight Club 2 Midnight Club 3 Project Gotham Racing
The Project Gotham Racing franchise was all about Kudos man, KUDOS… you may not have finished first in a race but power sliding perfectly around corners, hitting clean lines and beating lap times all gained rewards for your driving. It was slick, smooth and pretty much the antithesis to the likes of Burnout, Need for Speed and Midnight Club. Sadly Bizarre Creations, the creators of this stunning series are no more, although their style can still be seen shining through in the likes of Forza these days.
Star Wars: Republic Commando was a first person, squad based shooter involving a specialist team of clone troopers sent to take down various elements standing against the republic. Your crack team of three specialist clones, “Scorch”, “Fixer”, and “Sev” are ordered throughout the game by yourself as you visit various locales from the Star Wars universe. This, like Battlefront, is crying out for a follow up that could look absolutely stellar on the Xbox One. Sadly, and like Knights of the Old Republic, it’s not considered canon either so any follow up is unlikely to happen. Thanks for that, again, Lucasfilm.
Star Wars Republic Commando Sega Soccer Slam
We’re going to finish our little trip down memory lane with Sega Soccer Slam. A ridiculously silly four a side soccer game something akin to Mario Superstar Soccer with each team consisting of stereotypical country types that you probably couldn’t get away with in this day and age of political correctness. A huge ton of fun to play, helped in no small part by the entertaining commentating throughout the game. EAT. MY. GOAL.
Were they good times? We remember them as such, but sometimes when you return to these games you find them a very different animal to what you’re now used to. Some, like Halo, may well still stand the test of time but others are perhaps left best to the memory of what was.
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